New Ways To Dream
by WOWZAcoolBEANS
Summary: A duel tournament gets the crew into some trouble, especially Aster and Zane. Who will win the new duelists heart and the tournament? AsterxOC, ZanexAlexis, ZanexOC, slight JessexJaden, and a little AlexisxOC. Rated T for adult situations. Read more insid
1. Northern Downpour

**Hello everyone and welcome to my EPIC FANFIC! MUAHAHA! (Yes Smeepalicious, this is it, don't read it. You're not allowed to.) (You might want to read this, but if you're lazy and you don't want to, proceed to the disclaimer.) Now a few things about said fanfic, this takes place a few years after the series ends, everyone's out of high school and such. Zane's heart condition is slightly better, but he's still going to die because of it, and he is no longer Hell-Kaiser, he has really gone back to he was before. And Jaden's back from the whole wandering around thing, and Yubel is gone. Why? Because when I started this fic I hadn't known Yubel even existed. (No, I haven't been working on this for years; I just have been watching the episodes online.) YAY! This fic is novel-length, I have the vast majority of it done, but I've reached a pit of writer's block (NOOOOO!) which has caused me to hit a block in the road with it, therefore, I thought I'd post the chapters I have (Ha, all like, 20-something of them) and maybe the brilliant reviews would give me the kick in my caboose that I need to get this thing back running. Yes, I'm modest as well. Now it's going to be in "books", the books take turns being from two different people's perspectives. Like the first book is from Zane. And yes I use the American names, why you may ask? Because I'm lazy and would rather spell Chazz than ****Manjoume. Please no flaming, I worked my ass off on this fic (ask Smeepalicious) and I really don't think that it's a Mary Sue, due to the fact that I find my OC a horny, despicable person. But constructive criticism is fine, just don't be rude. Fanfiction is fun; it's a hobby and really shouldn't be taken that seriously. If you are really that devoted to writing that you think people shouldn't have fun with this crap than stop writing on here. (Sorry, done with my rant now.) And yes, I use the names Claire and Dieter far to often in my fics, but I think all ya'all have to deal with the fact that they're my favorite names. One last thing, this fic was inspired by a bunch of songs, but mostly Yellow by Coldplay. Some others come up as the book quotes, but I just wanted to give special props to that song.**

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN YU-GI-OH OR THE FEW YU-GI-OH CHARACTERS IN THIS FIC. I DO NOT OWN DOMINO CITY OR ANY OF THE CARDS USED IN THIS FIC. DON'T ARREST ME PLEASE! I WOULDN'T LAST TEN MINUTES IN THE SLAMMER!**

**Rating: T, for some lime (in later chapters), swearing and epic romance for the ages.**

--

Book One: Zane

"Because diamonds appear to be just like broken glass to me."

-Panic At The Disco, Northern Downpour

--

When she walked into the room, my eyes immediately went towards her, as did every one else's. My brain told me that it was just charisma, but something from somewhere else was completely enthralled. There was just something in her air, in the way that she carried herself, which made me look longer than everyone else. It didn't seem like anyone had expected her, but for some reason she was there.

--

Two weeks ago the Blue Eyes- Under Twenty-Five tournament had started, and advancing to the finals was child's play. At least for me, it was. My brother, Cyrus, didn't make it past the third duel. But the finalists consisted of an uninteresting bunch of people. It was almost a Duel Academy reunion; Jaden Yuki, Alexis and Atticus Rhodes, Jesse Anderson, Aster Phoenix and myself were all finalists. There was also an anonymous boy from North Academy and a girl that no one seemed to know was also there. The latter two seemed more separated from the group, especially the boy. The girl however, stood close to Aster, closer than strangers usually stood. It seemed like they were making it a point not to look at each other. Everyone's guess was that they knew each other from something or another, and Aster was just being kind and letting her stand near him to feel more included. I didn't really care; I left Aster's concerns to Aster.

"Ladies and gentleman," Chazz Princeton's annoyingly high-pitched voice boomed over the P.A. system. God only knew why Kaiba had given him the job of being the announcer for the tournament considering, as Jaden said, he had the face for radio, but not the voice. "Hello and welcome to Seto Kaiba's Blue-Eyes Under Twenty-Five tournament!" Almost immediately the overexcited crowd began to cheer uncontrollably. Chazz took almost a full minute to settle them down. "Are you ready to meet our eight finalists?" The cheering started up again, and yet again, Chazz had to take another minute to settle them. The amount of time it took to get forward was beginning to really annoy me. "Good. Then welcome the host of this tournament, Seto Kaiba, who will introduce them!"

The roar that Kaiba received as he walked onstage was deafening. The boy from North Academy, obviously unaccustomed to having to hear such loud noises, covered his ears. But as soon as Kaiba raised his arms the crowd was silent. He then relaxed into his usual stance and grabbed the microphone out of Chazz's hands, much to Chazz's dismay.

"Welcome to my tournament." He said without a smile, or any emotion really.

Alexis leaned into my ear and whispered "He makes you look like Jaden." She giggled, thinking she was funny, even though she wasn't. Kaiba continued his speech, but I couldn't focus. Not only because I had heard the same speech by the host of every contest that I had ever been in, but also because my eyes kept wandering over to the mysterious girl duelist. It surprised me that she made it into the finals, I hadn't seen her in any tournaments before, and I know that she had never participated in a professional duel. And it wasn't like she was a forgettable person, with her chin length orange hair and bright blue eyes, I would have remembered her.

"I will now introduce our finalists." I vaguely heard Kaiba say after a few minutes, and I began to focus. "Jaden Yuki," The crowd gave a deafening cheer as the fan favorite walked onstage and attempted to give Kaiba a high five, and was rejected. "Atticus Rhodes," My friend walked up onto the stage and winked in the audience and did a finger point at a few of the girls. Every woman screamed and shouted for joy and began to swoon. "Jesse Anderson," Jesse rushed up onto the stage and stood next to Jaden, they both smiled at each other, and then looked out at the crowd. "Dieter Multov," The boy from North Academy's head popped up and he slowly walked onto the stage, which obviously annoyed Kaiba. When he got up there he stood awkwardly away from everyone else. He got the least applause out of any of the other finalists so far. "Alexis Rhodes," My fiancé walked up to the stage and gave a quick nod to Kaiba before standing next to her brother. "Claire Rodgers," The mysterious girl, who's name was apparently Claire, gracefully walked up to Kaiba, who reached out to shake her hand. It was strange that she was the only one that he made contact with, he had ignored everyone else. "Aster Phoenix," Aster waved to the crowd as he walked up onto the stage. The cheers for him were almost as loud as Jaden's, people liked Aster's charisma. He immediately stood next to Claire, he nervously glanced at her, but her eyes were fixated on the crowd. "And lastly, Zane Truesdale." As I began to walk up to Kaiba, Claire's eyes caught mine. We made eye contact for a moment, then with a small smile, she looked away. My heart was beating fast, and I didn't know why. Usually when it beat like that, I was in pain due to my condition, but this time, it didn't hurt. I took my place next to Alexis, and felt my fiancé's caring eyes on me, all to aware that something was wrong. "I'd like to congratulate our finalists and let everyone know what tomorrow's match-ups will be, at 9:00 am Zane Truesdale will face Dieter Multov in the first bracket, and at 3:00 pm Claire Rodgers will face off against Alexis Rhodes on the second bracket." Kaiba walked offstage as Chazz took up the microphone again.

"That's right ladies and gents, tomorrow's match-ups will be Zane verses Dieter and Claire verses Alexis. Be there…" he added a dramatic pause, "or be square!" He winked at the audience, who were all very confused. "The Chazz is out!" Chazz walked offstage and signaled for the finalists to follow him.

Chazz took us down a long hallway that was obviously not open to the public.

"What's up Chazz?" Jaden's annoyingly bright voice said.

"Not much loser." Chazz said in response, trying to end the conversation.

"Can we please get this meeting over with?" Alexis pleaded while she intertwined her fingers with mine. "I just want to get to the hotel." I glanced over at Claire, who was smirking at me, and our eyes met. I kept my poker face on, though embarrassed, and turned to look at a smiling Alexis.

"Fine." Chazz said, his voice slightly more bitter than usual. "We, meaning Seto and I," he paused with a triumphant smile, he obviously thought that we cared about his name-dropping, and even worse, he thought we were impressed. "wanted to tell you how the finals would be run. For the first round of duels, there will be two duels a day, every other day. For the second round, it will be one duel a day, every two days. Three days after the last duel of the second round the final duel will be played. The first group of people knows whom they'll be dueling tomorrow, and the second group's opponents will be announced after Claire and Alexis's duel. There are two brackets, and if you don't know how that works, then go back to Kindergarten. If there's a draw in a duel, each person draws until they get a monster card. The first monster card they get, they put in attack mode on the field, whichever monster has a stronger attack, is the winner. Got it?"

Everyone muttered a positive response and Chazz gave everyone to okay to leave. As people began walking towards the door Jaden's voice rang out.

"Hey everyone!" Jaden projected. "I'm going to have a party in my room tonight! Bring anyone you want!" We were all staying at the Chateau d'Kaiba, all expenses paid. Alexis smiled at me and I knew that I would be forced to go. I tried to look for Claire, to see what her reaction was, because for some reason, I was morbidly curious. But it seemed that she had already walked out before Jaden had even finished talking, and curiously enough, Aster was missing as well. "We'll all meet in my room, room Elemental Hero Clayman on the Earth Floor at about seven. Bring food!"

I sighed and told him that Alexis and I would be there.

--

Once we walked out of the building, my fiancé cornered me.

"You could act a little more excited Zane. I mean, we're both finalists _and_ we're both going to be dueling tomorrow!" I looked into her eyes, both angry and concerned. My expression didn't change. "Is there something wrong?" She asked me.

"No." I told her. "I'm just a little tired." She pulled my arms around her in a tight embrace.

"Is it your heart?" She asked, moving her head so that her ear was against my chest.

"No. I just didn't sleep well last night."

"Okay, we won't stay at the party long. I just want to meet the two new duelists." I considered telling there that we shouldn't bother, that they probably wouldn't show up at the party, especially Dieter, who seemed extremely anti-social, and shy, and it wouldn't matter. And that we would beat both of them tomorrow. But I knew the second was a lie, I didn't know why, but I thought that Claire could be serious competition for Alexis.

"Fine." I said as I let go of her, happy for an excuse to. "Go to the hotel, I'll meet you there in a little bit." I saw the hurt on her face and explained. "I'm going to get some food to bring to the party. I'll meet you before the party in our room, okay?" I kissed her lightly on the lips and walked away, not really knowing where I was going, just wanting to leave the place I was.

After a few minutes I looked back to make sure that Alexis was out of view. She was. I went into a near-by alleyway and slumped against a wall. I slid down the wall until I was sitting with my elbows on my knees, and my face was hidden in my hands. It wasn't that I didn't love Alexis, I did. But only as a sister, she could never be more than that to me. Everything with her leading up to this point had been a huge mistake.

When I had first… asked her out… for lack of a better term, I thought my feelings could evolve, but after time, they didn't. And when my mother gave me the family ring when she divorced dad, and Alexis had found it in my car, I was about to… break-up… again with a lack of a better term, with her. Then I found myself engaged. I had put off setting a date for as long as possible, but I knew that Alexis was getting antsy to set one up. I didn't know how to tell her that I could never love her the way she loved me.

I was still thinking about my situation when I heard a familiar voice and a shadow over me. "Dude, get up." Aster Phoenix told me. I look up to see him… and Claire, the mystery duelist, standing above me, Aster with a somewhat smug face and Claire with a look of concern.

"Aster, leave him alone." Her voice was rougher than I thought it would be, gruffer. "You want to be left alone, right?" I was still thinking about how strange her voice was, and how seemingly appropriate it was for her. I didn't know why I had ever thought that her voice would be more… musical. Her question didn't even register in my brain before she continued to speak a few moments later. "Come on Aster, he's obviously in La-La Land." The two of them walked away almost immediately, after a moment she looked back at me with a confused face. I could swear that I heard her say "And he was the best duelist at that school you went to? Why'd you ever waste your time there Aster?" I winced as she said the words, probably not meant for me to hear. Usually the words wouldn't faze me, but they sounded so cruel… and honest coming from her lips.

Her chin length orange hair blew up in the wind and she gave an involuntary shiver in the chilly October night. Without hesitation Aster put his arm around her waist and she settled her head on top of his shoulder, a tad bit of a stretch for her, but she looked to be extremely comfortable. He pulled her closer into him and I heard them laugh. Suddenly, I felt a rage so strong, and so intense inside of me that I was briefly reminded of me when I was… not myself. Though I still had the image of the… Hell-Kaiser, I was not still him. I had become softer, more like the person who I had used to be. Nearly being killed due to something like that makes you think twice about who you were. I quickly got up and began to walk in the other direction. It was the only thing I could do to keep myself from killing the two of them.

--

I reached the hotel twenty minutes later with a bag of generic cookies in my hands. As soon as I got in the door I swiftly walked into a closing elevator, and found myself next to Aster and Claire, whose lips were latched together tightly. The elevator began to move, but they continued. It wasn't until I not only coughed politely, but also nearly hacked out a lounge, that Aster even noticed me and gently pushed Claire off of him. There was an awkward moment while we all stared at each other, but almost thankfully, the elevator door opened a few seconds later at the Water Floor. Claire smiled and waved goodbye to Aster, then got off of the elevator.

"So…" I said to Aster casually, though I could feel the anger rising up in my chest. "Who's playing mind-games, you or her?"

"Mind-games?" Aster asked with a quizzical look on his face. "Zane, I don't know what you mean by mind-games." I smiled, despite myself. He was either a really bad actor, or he was being played pretty hard.

"I think you do Aster." The elevator stopped at my floor. I walked out and turned around. The elevator door began to close, but I stuck my hand in to stop it momentarily. "Why else would you be snogging the competition?"

--

**Ha. I had some Cyrus bashing. I do not like that kid. YAY! And Kaiba's hotel is, you guessed it! DUEL MONSTERS THEMED! I hoped you like it, if you did review. Seriously. The next chapter will be posted when I can get my lazy ass to post it. Le woot.**


	2. Is That a Trap Card?

**Ha. No reviews. I'm feeling sad now. Oh well, I'll just post this for my mental health and pray that someone finds it amusing enough to review. Hint. Hint.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh GX or Yu-Gi-Oh. **

When I got to my room I was fuming. All I wanted was to get into my bed and fall asleep. I dropped the cookies on a nearby table, probably breaking more than a few, when Alexis came in, clad only in a silk bathrobe. She sensed how angry I was and took me into her arms. I felt uncomfortable and confined as she tried to calm me.

"What's wrong?" She asked me. It was obvious that she was concerned and I was being crazy, but I couldn't bring myself to feel any better. It was as if I was back to being the Hell-Kaiser that I was for that short period, all the anger I felt, it was the same. I relaxed into Alexis's warm and now wanted arms. I felt bad that I was using her for the moment, but the comfort I felt from her warmth overshadowed it.

"I'm fine." I told her. "Just tired." Alexis could tell that I was lying, but she seemed relieved just for the fact that I wasn't so stiff. She began to run her fingers through my hair and I did begin to truly relax for a moment.

"It's okay Zane, we don't have to go to the party if you don't want to." I could hear the disappointment in her voice as she talked. She obviously did want to go.

"It's fine Alexis, we can go. Now go get dressed." Alexis smiled and quickly went to her bedroom to change, probably so I couldn't change my mind. I went to my room to do the same thing, but instead I lied down on my bed. Everything in my life was so screwed up. There was a good chance I'd die of heart failure before my thirtieth birthday because of my own stupidity, I was going to marry a girl who I didn't love, and I felt a strange lustful connection to a girl who, not only did I not know, but seemed to think I was insane. I was feeling angry, mad and confused. I wanted to go cry in my mothers arms, I wanted to scream my lungs out, I wanted to lock my room and never come out, but most of all I wanted to go to that party and kick Aster Phoenix's pasty, second-rate duelist ass.

Alexis came in after about ten minutes had passed this way. She looked despairingly about the fact that I hadn't changed, but she didn't mention it. Her emotions were always so easy to read.

"Are you ready Zane?" she asked me with a semi-forced smile.

"Yes." I replied as I got up. We made a little forced chitchat until we got into the elevator. After waiting for a moment, the doors opened with a familiar face in it.

"Zane." Chazz Princeton said with a nod in my direction. "Alexis." He said with a dreamy look in his eyes. It probably should have bothered me that Chazz was still madly in love with my fiancé, but I wasn't. Part of me almost wished that she were also in love with him.

"Hey Chazz." Alexis replied as she reached over to press the button for Jaden's floor, only to see that it was already lit-up. "Are you going to Jaden's party?"

"I'm going wherever you're going baby." He said with a stupid grin. He winked at Alexis then added, "That includes my room after the party." Alexis sighed then put her hand on the small of my back, unwillingly, I did the same.

"Don't count on that Chazz." She told him while she rolled her eyes. She moved slightly closer to me and put her head up on my shoulder, just how Claire had done with Aster. I winced at the thought. Luckily, no one seemed to notice. Chazz stuck up his nose at Alexis's public display of affection and turned his head. Moments later the elevator stopped on Jaden's floor.

As we got out of the small room the elevator next to us opened up, to reveal Bastian, Jesse and Claire. As they walked out of the elevator Jesse and Bastian were in hysterics while Claire seemed to be telling them a joke, although she was laughing as well. "So I said…" she said as soon as the two calmed down. "I said 'is that a trap card in your pocket, or are you just happy to…" She trailed off when she noticed that her audience had expanded. "Hello everyone." She said with a nervous smile. I wondered why she was nervous, did she find Alexis, her opponent for tomorrow, intimidating? Or was it me? Or did she think that since Chazz was the tournament's announcer, that he was some famous guy? Or because he actually knew Seto Kaiba? But she was the one that Kaiba had shaken hands with, so why would knowing him being intimidating to him? I yearned for the power to read her mind. I would have given anything to know what she was thinking.

"Claire Rodgers," Chazz announced to us all. "What a pleasure to meet you at last." He grabbed Claire's hand and kissed it like they did in old movies. Claire smiled nervously and opened her mouth to speak. "Don't bother, I know everything about you already." Claire's skin turned white as he continued. "Twenty years-old, no formal dueling education, though you was exposed to many famous duelists throughout your childhood, all of whom helped shape you as the duelist you are today. Your parents are both diseased, your legal guardian is Maximillion Pegasus." He paused for dramatic effect. "When your father, a card designer at Industrial Illusions, died, Pegasus was so impressed by the intelligence of his only child that he adopted her." I looked at Claire, who had turned from white to pure red. Everyone's mouths were agape due to a mix of shock that Chazz could actually be so rude, and shock that Claire was actually adopted by the creator of Duel Monsters. "Your deck is water themed, your favorite monster is Space Mambo, but you do carry one non-water monster in your deck to remind you of someone that you love and have loved since you were a kid. No one knows who or what card, because you've never played it. Your favorite color's orange, note your not natural hair color. And this is your first tournament and you've never been in a professional duel before." He smiled, then added. "It's good to be on Seto's good side." We all looked at him, silenced by his rudeness, until Claire spoke with great composure for someone who had just had her entire life aired to a bunch of strangers.

"Well, I'm glad that Seto is as clever as ever, except the fact that he placed his trust in a worm like you." And with that, she turned and walked swiftly to Jaden's room. Alexis, who I had forgotten was next to me, let alone had her head on my shoulder moved her head in order to whisper in my ear.

"Do you think that she knows Kaiba personally?" she asked.

"I don't know." I whispered back. But the evidence was all there. The hand shake, her speaking as if she knew him. If her step-father was Maximillion Pegasus, then she would have been exposed to a number of famous duelists over time.

Our group continued down the hallway in silence. Bastian and Jesse were both throwing dirty looks at Chazz, probably because he scared Claire away before they heard the punch line to her joke.

We finally got to Jaden's door, and went inside.

**I hope that you guys liked this chapter, it's not one of my best, but I do like the Trap Card line. And yeah, Claire is an annoying character, but I found her to be suitable for the purposes of this fic. And the only reason Claire was adopted by Pegasus was both for the plot (ha, that comes up in my most uberly-favorite chapter I've ever written) and because I can not have a fanfic without Pegasus in it, come on everyone! HE'S PEGASUS!**

**Zane-I think I'm much better than he is.**

**Me-Shut up Zane. Shouldn't you be off clutching your heart in pain or something?**

**Aster-Review!**


	3. He Doesn't Think His Heart Can Take It

**Just so all ya'll know, there is something a bit (actually more than a bit) umm… racy at the last section of this chapter. I'll have the divider things around it with a little warning, but if you don't want to read my terrible first attempt at a lemon, then skip it.**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh GX or Yu-Gi-Oh. If I did then Bakura would have been more masculine. Yum... Bakura...**

It wasn't until I was already in the room that I realized that I had forgotten the cookies I had bought. Alexis offered to go get them, but I wanted her to stay and enjoy the party. It was the least thing I could do for her, considering how… grouchy… I had been all day. But I guess that it was my mistake to go get them.

The elevator ride down to our room was pleasant, I was alone. I quickly got to my room, grabbed the bag of cookies and went to catch another elevator. If only I had gone a bit slower, waited a minute or two, but I didn't, and it just so happened that Aster Phoenix was standing at the back of the elevator that I had gotten into.

"Zane." He said with a sneer and looked pointedly at the electronic number going up with the floors. I don't know why I decided to provoke him. Perhaps it was the fact that he had done the same thing to me when I was… not myself. Or maybe that I just felt like taking my anger out on him. Or maybe, somewhere in my mind, I was completely and utterly jealous, even though I thought that one was using the other. But no matter what the reason, I did provoke him, and twenty minutes later, I deeply regretted that decision.

"So Aster," I began with a smug smile. "ready to sleep your way to the top?" I asked him. He gave me a look of confusion and disgust. I knew that it was out of my character, but I continued. "Hey, maybe if you, or your little girlfriend, gave Kaiba a blow-job, then you'll just win the tournament! She seemed to be… acquainted with him." My smugness grew into a full-blown grin as I saw Aster shake his head slowly, filled with disgust and hatred. "She must have… given… a lot to him actually. I seriously doubt that someone who had never done anything professionally could get into this contest without some sort of… payment." I looked at his disgusted face. "Or did you duel for her? For a price, probably. Then again, I would want her to pay me in cash, I wouldn't do her for free."

"Zane," he said slowly. "You have no idea what you're talking about. You know absolutely nothing."

"But at least this is better than your old destiny fettish." He looked me in the eye, I could see that he was itching to hurt me. I smiled and continued. "Or is Claire related to Sartorius or something? Or here, did he predict that you would win if you fucked her?" Before I could continue I felt myself being pushed up against the door to the elevator, one of Aster's hands around my neck, the other pinning one of my hands down, the other being smashed by Aster's leg.

Aster stuck his face right into mine and said in a soft, but deadly voice "If you say another word about Claire, I swear to God Zane that you will…" Aster never got to finish his sentence. In the middle the door opened and as we fell over, I was able to position myself so I fell on top of Aster. I grabbed his throat like he had had mine earlier, but all of the sports that Aster played had paid off. He pushed me off of him and in a fluid movement, was already back on his feet. It took me a moment, but quickly enough, I was on my feet as well.

We waited a moment, both staring at each other, willing the other to make the first move.

"Come on Phoenix," I found myself saying to him. "or do you think that you can't take me?" For some reason, it felt all too good, and all too natural to egg him on.

"I don't want to fight you Zane. I don't want to disa…" He stopped midsentence and stared off into space for a moment, then he was suddenly more focused than before.

"Okay." I told him, and walked over to him. Thinking that we were calling it a truce, he held out his hand for me to shake. Instead of grabbing his hand, I punched him in the jaw. "I'll fight you then." He wiped the spit off of his jaw and kicked me in the stomach. The pleasure I felt from the fight overshadowed the pain. We continued to fight, but we were each other's matches. Neither of us could get ourselves into a "winning" position. We punched, kicked, yelled, and bashed each other into walls, everything we could do. Manners were beyond us, we were playing dirty. His signature white suit was soon torn and stained with blood. I wasn't sure what sort of condition my clothing was in, but I was sure that it was no better. But no matter what happened, we just continued fighting.

After about ten minutes I rammed Aster into the door of Jaden's room and knocked the wind out of him. He immediately slumped down onto the floor, losing consciousness. His eyes flickered open after a moment, but I was positive the fight was over. Instead, he grabbed my leg, and tripped me, realizing I wasn't paying attention. We began wrestling each other on the floor when the door opened and our friends watched us in horror. After a moment there was a scream from the doorway. Claire pushed through the other people and rushed to Aster. She pulled me off of him, which surprised me, she didn't look that strong, and gently helped him up. I didn't fight her back.

"Are you okay?" She asked him with tears in her eyes as she put her arms around him. The tears began to stream down as she surveyed Aster's bloody and bruised face. I smiled, knowing that I did some serious damage to him.

Aster tried to force a weak smile, but he failed. "I'm fine. Let's go." He told her. Aster feebly tried to stand-up, but his knees buckled. Claire caught him just in time. She put his arm around her shoulder and began to help him down the hallway. Once they were near the elevators, Claire whispered something into Aster's ear and he nodded. She helped Aster lean against the wall and came back. To my surprise, the other people had gone back inside the room, I hadn't really noticed. But now without their presence, I felt naked. It looked like Claire was on the hunt and I was her prey. She came up and stuck her face right in mine, her anger overshadowing her rational thoughts, just as mine had.

"Zane Truesdale," she started hissing into my face. I kept my poker face on, but I wasn't sure how long it would hold up. Her voice struggled as she tried to find the right words to say. My heart began to race in a not so good kind of way. "You are an insane _bastard_ and if I ever see you antagonizing Aster, or anyone for that matter, ever again, I will personally dismantle you limb from limb, burn those limbs in a fire and dance around that fire while singing show tunes. Actually," she looked worriedly over her shoulder where Aster was standing, eyes half closed, looking like he was inches away from death. I rolled my eyes, he was just being melodramatic. "if Aster wasn't so hurt, I would do that right now!" She gave me a small push and ran off to join Aster near the elevator and pushed the down button aggressively. I saw Aster grab her hand, a worried look was in his eyes, but she pushed him off. He had a look of agony on his face that was definitely not from the injuries that I had caused him. After a moment Claire looked back at him and grabbed his hand and she, appeared to, apologized to him. I could feel bile rising in my throat as I watched the two enter the elevator, Claire helping Aster with every step. I was just beginning to turn away as I heard Claire's voice one more time. "And these cookies are disgusting!"

I couldn't help but to laugh at that one.

-- **(This is where the racy stuff is, after Zane tells Alexis that everything's fine, skip to the next divider ((--)))**

That night in bed, the pain came. I realized how stupid it was for me to do that, especially because my heart could have given out at any second. As I was mentally kicking myself, Alexis came in, and after avoiding me all night, I guessed that she wasn't pleased.

"Are you dead?" She asked. I shook my head. "Good. Are you dying?" I shook my head again. She was controlling herself very well, she was working very hard not to scream. "Even better. Now what were you thinking?!" Instead of screaming, she began to broke down. "You could have gotten hurt, you could have hurt Aster, you could have been kicked out of the tournament, you could have…" her heavy sobs made it so she could no longer speak. After a minute she was able to speak again. She looked me in the eyes with tortured look. "I just lov…" a muffled sob escaped her lips, but she tried again. "So, so much… and to see you like that again…" I sat up and cradled her in my arms while she cried.

"It's fine Alexis, it's all fine." I told her as she snuggled into my chest. She reached up and kissed me gently. I thought that she was done, but she picked her head up and kissed me some more. I kissed back, more out of necessity. I really wasn't in the mood, but the last thing I needed was Alexis to be even angrier with me.

She began to push my body closer to her and I mentally sighed. I knew where this was going to go, just like it had gone so many times before. Her tongue began to pull my lips apart and I unwillingly obliged. She pulled herself on top of me and began to get more aggressive. I pulled her shirt over her head as she unzipped my pants. I tried to think of something to get myself erect, but with Alexis slobbering all over me, it was hard. We had done this so many times that it got old. Eventually I felt the stiffness and knew I'd be safe for tonight.

I undid her bra and she shed her underwear. She pulled my boxers off with her teeth and I knew that it was time. We switched positions and I was on top of her. Before we started she hungrily kissed me again, biting my tongue. She smiled, thinking she was funny, but all that did was hurt. I had enough self-control not to roll my eyes at her.

After another kiss we began. I shifted my weight and it happened. It was a familiar routine, in and out, in and out. Alexis groaned in pleasure, and I groaned in pain. Making love was rather hard when every part of your body was sore and your heart was beating unusually fast.

Alexis obviously did not notice my supreme discomfort and made the signs of wanting to continue with this. She began to kiss me harshly and bite my ears when I stopped. When she realized that I wasn't going to give her anymore she crawled under the covers. She put her mouth around my dick and began to suck, and I did have to admit that it felt rather good. It probably was not a good thing that I wasn't wearing a condom, I knew that Alexis was on birth control, but it was never a good idea to do this without one on.

I knew I didn't have an STD, but still.

Alexis let go and I felt my dick stand-up again. _Shit._ I thought. _Time for round two._ I closed my eyes and let Alexis do most of the work this time. I found it much more pleasant with my eyes closed actually, the strange thing was, it wasn't Alexis who I saw myself having this with when my eyes were closed. It was someone else.

Claire.

"FUCK!" I said out loud, meaning for it to be in my head. Luckily it was just a loud whisper and Alexis didn't hear between her groans. She was having an orgasm.

After a few more minutes I had had enough.

"Alexis." I said trying to push her off of me.

She ignored me and continued.

"ALEXIS." I said in a louder tone.

"What?!" She said as she came in to kiss me again. I turned my face, instead she just began biting my neck.

"I think we should be done for the night." She glared at me for a moment, then kissed me, but lighter, then she stopped.

"Okay." She said as she snuggled into my chest once again.

--

We sat like this for a while, just breathing. Alexis seemed content. She was smiling up at me. I stared at the wall. I was still in pain and I wasn't quite sure that my heart medicine would hold through due to tonight's… events.

_Breathe._ I told myself, feeling my heart speed up and slow down. _Breathe._ After a half hour of this my heart was back to normal and Alexis was asleep.

As hard as I tried I could not fall asleep. Something kept running through my head.

_**Zane Truesdale, you are an insane bastard.**_

No I wasn't. I wasn't. I had only tried to beat up a guy for a stilly reason and I was using my fiancé and dreaming of another girl while we were having sex. That in no way entailed that I was an insane bastard.

_**Zane Truesdale, you are an insane bastard.**_

God damnit, I was not.

_**Zane Truesdale, you are an insane bastard.**_

Was I one?

**So I hope all ya'll enjoyed my pathetic lemon. I know it wasn't fantastic, but having just entered high school, I have not actually experienced any of that. And also, I am not a man. Therefore I have no idea what it would be like from their prospective. Also, I hope you all enjoyed my first attempt at a fight scene. I'd like some (very) constructive criticism on this chapter. These are areas where I desperately need some help on and it would be great if any people who have looked at this would like to oblige.**

**Zane-I had fun in this chapter.**

**Aster-Shut up, you just want my woman.**

**Zane- ****Die Phoenix.**

**Me-So review before these two end up fighting again.**

**Jim- Hello mates, this is my cameo for ****xrxixsxexmxbxoxoxlxrxaxnxgxexr. Maybe I'll actually show up in the next chapter.**

**Karen- Roar.**


	4. The First Duel

**Damn highschool sucks. I've been so emo-depressed lately. I got called back for this show that I really wanted to be in (a pretty big deal for a freshman) but I didn't get in. It seriously pissed me off because I had been working on my monologue all summer and I had even ordered the script! And it wasn't like I was reading ****The Boys Next Door**** for my own health! But it's all better now. I'm just going to be doing stagecrew for the show, specifically costumes and make-up, therefore being able to stab pins and jab eyeliner into the body parts of the people who did make it. Am I slightly insane? Yes. Oh well, I just needed to vent somewhere, sorry. Thanks. Review!**

**BTW: This is a short chapter. Sorry. The muses weren't here for this one.**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh GX or Yu-Gi-Oh. If I did then Aster would have kicked Adrian's ass and Mai would have ended up with Valon.**

"Zane Truesdale verses Dieter Multov!" Chazz's voice yelled into the microphone as the crowd cheered. I had slept about two hours last night and was finding it rather difficult to focus. Not only that, but every part of my body was in massive pain. Aster was a lot stronger than I gave him credit for. Dieter and I exchanged decks, cut the other's cards, and started our duel disks. It had begun.

Dieter was a very skilled duelist. His deck had a spell caster theme to it and was extremely powerful. But mine was better. His deck was centered on spell card combinations, but they were easy to figure them out and destroy them before he had a chance to do any real damage. The end score was 2100 to 0, with me as the winner. We shook hands at the end and exchanged forced pleasantries. There was something slightly off about Dieter. It surprised me how easily I won; I would have thought that someone who made it to the finals would have been a more difficult opponent. It was almost as if he was playing like an amateur to lose. His expression was the same the entire time, from the moment he walked into the arena to the moment he lost, he wore the same haughty and bored expression. He also seemed to have not prepared for the duel. As he drew cards he had to switch them around to face the right direction and his appearance was disheveled at best.

Chazz's voice rang over the loud speaker. "Hello ladies and gentleman! A big congrats to Zane Truesdale, the first finalist to make it into the semi-finals. The next match-ups will be Aster Phoenix verses Jesse Anderson and Jaden Yuki verses Atticus Rhodes. The Chazz is out!"

--

I spent the time between my duel and Alexis's by walking around the city. Unlike most people, I didn't just go to all of the places that Yugi may have been for ten seconds when he was eight. Domino City was a nice place, an interesting place. While walking around I saw Jim and his crocodile. It always puzzled me how such he could carry something over 200 pounds on his back all the time. You would think that he would have had some back problems by now. Later that afternoon as I was walking back to the dueling arena I saw Claire across the street, walking with none other than Mai Valentine-Wheeler, one of the finalists from Battle City. I could hear their conversation from across the street.

"Mai," Claire asked the beautiful blonde. "How can you stand being retired? You were such a fantastic duelist!"

"Aw, thanks hon. But I thought I would let the new generation take over, besides, I'm getting so many great gigs as tournament announcers and judges, that I've got more money than ever!" She paused and they both laughed or a moment. "Besides, being a duelist while you're married is a lot harder than you would think. It's really difficult when you end-up facing off against your husband in the finals. There was this one time when Joey and I didn't speak for a week after I crushed him." They both laughed again. "Speaking of which," Mai added, "has Phoenix popped the question yet?" Claire laughed nervously and her face turned red. "He hasn't?!" Mai asked in shock. "But that boy is head over heels in love with you! Has been for years. I remember that day when you two…" she paused and looked off dreamily for a moment. Claire's face got redder. "I'm just surprised that he hasn't yet. I'm sure he would die for you if he had to." Claire stopped walking for a moment.

"He almost did." She said quietly.

"What?!" Mai asked in complete shock.

"Well, it wasn't near death. But last night he got into a huge fistfight with Zane Truesdale, one of the other finalists. And you know Aster, he much prefers to solve his problems through dueling."

"Zane Truesdale?" Mai asked, "Isn't he completely insane? I heard that he likes to electrocute himself."

"Well, I don't know about that, but Zane was saying that I was a whore and Aster was sleeping with me to win the tournament. Kind of weird though, I don't know how Aster would win if he slept with me, sleeping with Kaiba would be a much better choice." Claire stopped to giggle, bu t Mai's expression changed to one of rage.

"Claire! Don't take this as a joke! Where is this guy?!" She screamed. "I'm going to kick his ass!"

"He's across the street, he's been listening to our conversation for a block and a half." I stopped dead in my tracks. I could swear that she hadn't looked over at me the entire time. Maybe she was related to Sartorius. "Luckily, I'm dueling his fiancé today, who should be pretty easy to defeat. Then I'll win one more round, then I'll beat him in the finals, or if I don't make it, Aster will beat him. That should be humiliating enough for him."

"Oh! You're dueling today? Who?" Mai asked Claire.

"Alexis Rhodes… Soon to be Alexis Truesdale." Claire replied.

"I feel bad for the girl." Mai said with a laugh. "She'll get beaten in three moves by you, then she has to marry that guy. Is the poor thing attractive at least?"

"Yes, she's very pretty. Half of the guys in the tournament are in love with her, especially the announcer." Claire looked up at Mai, "She's a lot like you." Mai gave a small laugh in return, and it was obvious that the two were extremely close. "She's got a cyber-fem deck, sort of like yours as well, although it doesn't focus on the Harpy Ladies." It was strange that Claire was saying nice things about Alexis. From what I could tell, they hadn't had much contact, and when they did, they just exchanged names and made idle chitchat. I couldn't help but to ask myself if it was for my sake that she was saying those things.

"Well, I'll have to come watch. I'll call Joey and Tristan too! It's a shame that Yugi's out of town, but I think he'll be here for the finals. Heck, I think that if you made it to the finals, then we could call a Battle City reunion! You're all of the old-pro's favorite duelist." Claire smiled and looked at her watch.

"I think it's about time that I go get to the duel arena." She said and Mai looked at her watch and nodded her head.

"Yes, you should go. I'll be out in the audience cheering you on. If I don't see you before you start, good luck!" Mai gave Claire a short hug and a kiss on each cheek. She then turned around a nearby corner to another street.

Claire and I walked for a minute in silence, but I had to get something off of my chest.

"I didn't call you a whore." I called to her from across the street, just to set the record straight, not really caring that there was a mother with a toddler walking nearby and I was crossing by a Church.

"I know." Claire called back. "But the implications were pretty big." The fact that I had to agree with that made me wince.

"That's true." I said quietly, then stopped walking for a moment. I turned to look at the other side of the street, and saw that she had also stopped and was looking at me with a slight smile. "Sorry." I told her, "I was out of line."

"No shit." Claire said as she began to walk again. Before I could stop to think she had already walked half a block. _Damn, she's fast,_ I thought as I sped up to get to the same pace she was at. My heart began to beat faster and I prayed that I wouldn't have any problems today. My medicines seemed to be working, but whenever Claire was in the area my heart tended to act up more than usual.

"But you have to realize that's how your relationship looks from the outside." I told her helplessly. Being a usually quiet person, I had never been in this sort of situation before. Besides some trash talking while dueling, I had never really called anyone names like this, I thought it was a little to grade-schooler for me.

"The outside doesn't matter." She told me as she continued to walk.

"Wait!" I said somewhat helplessly, feeling slightly emasculated. She immediately stopped, but didn't turn my way. "I really am sorry." She turned to face me.

"I would be too." And with that, she walked away, leaving me standing there.

**Zane-You're making my character so OC.**

**Me-I know.**

**Aster-Ha, but you haven't seen how she's butchered mine in later chapter's Zane, do you know that I de….**

**Me-Shut up! You'll spoil it!**

**Aster-What is there to spoil? Your story has no plot.**

**Me-…**

**Oh the plot's coming. Yes my friends, the plot is coming. And when it comes, you won't know what hit you. Just like you should hit something. Such as the review button. **


	5. Plot!

**Another short chapter, sorry. But the next one is one of my favorite chapter's I've ever written. So just sit through this one and I'll have chapter six up soon. I'll be busy this weekend (I have to march in a freaking parade. Can anyone say John Phillip Sousa?), but hopefully I'll be able to get chapter six up tonight perhaps. Whooooo knoooooows? And ha! There's plot in this chapter. No one believed that it would come, but it has! Muahahaha!  
**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh GX, Yu-Gi-Oh or any of the cards mentioned in this chapter. I also do not own Jekyll and Hyde… hehe. Don't ask.**

I'm not exactly sure how long I stood there, but by the time I got to the Duel Arena, Claire and Alexis's duel had already started. I took a seat in the back, knowing that there would be hell to pay if Alexis saw me come in late. She wasn't that demanding as far as fiancés went, but she still could get pretty angry when I missed her duel. Claire was already beating Alexis, even though there couldn't have been more than two rounds. It seemed like Claire had already calculated every move that Alexis was making and had a way to counter it. She had probably looked up what was in Alexis's deck, it was pretty predictable.

I had been sitting there contently watching the duel for five minutes before I realized who I was sitting next to Joey Wheeler, Mai's husband, and famous duelist.

Next to Joey was Tristan Taylor; one of Yugi's cheerleaders, Joey and Duke Devlin, the creator of Dungeon Dice Monsters. I could see that Mai was sitting in the row in front of us, playing close attention to the duel. The three boys, however, were not. They were chatting and yapping. Mai turned around to tell them to shush them when her eyes landed on me.

"Ah, Mr. Truesdale," she said in a sarcastic voice, "are you enjoying watching your fiancé getting crushed?" She asked just as, appropriately, Claire's Frostosaurous attacked Alexis's Cyber Blader and took out a chunk of her life points. Alexis put her duel disk over her face to help absorb the blow from the giant dinosaur.

"Of course not." I told her and looked back at the duel.

"'Ehy." I heard Joey say in his thick Brooklyn accent. "Who is this guy?" He asked Mai and the other two.

"I don't know." Duke Devlin said.

"Me neither." Tristan said.

It was such a nice thing to know that my publicist was really doing his job.

"He's another one of the finalists," Mai explained, "Zane Truesdale. The duelist who lost to Aster that one time and then turned Goth." The three looked me over and laughed. I kept my attention strictly on the duel. Alexis was down to her last few life points and Claire had an unbeatable combination. A Legendary Ocean as the field spell, and the Tornado Wall trap. The monsters she had out were Ocean Dragon Lord Neo-Dadelous and two weaker monsters. No matter what Alexis did she would lose. Even if she was able to summon a stronger monster than Claire's dragon, Claire would use it's effect to clear the field of all cards besides her dragon, and with 300 life points, she wouldn't be able to survive a hit by the dragon's 2900 attack points. Alexis was screwed. Alexis put down one monster in defense and ended her turn. The look of defeat was already in her eyes. Claire drew, smiled at Alexis and ordered her Terrorking Salmon to attack Alexis's facedown monster, which was instantly destroyed. But instead of having her Dragon attack, she had her weaker card, Space Mambo, attack Alexis's life points instead. Alexis still lost, but the pain would have been far greater if she used her dragon.

"Why'd she use the fish?" Duke asked Tristan.

"You know Duke, it's because she sees the Space Mambo's… um…" Tristan said trying to find the word he was looking for.

"Spirit." I said, keeping my eyes on Alexis's slumped over body. "She sees Space Mambo's duel spirit."

"Yeah, that's it." Joey said. "Hey Tristan, remember that time when Bakura…" I tuned them out to think. Was there anything wrong with Claire? Did she have no flaw? She saw duel spirits, was a great duelist, kind, and loyal. Was she a perfect person?

Ten minutes later I found out she did have flaws.

I was going to meet Alexis backstage when I heard Claire on the phone with someone. I shouldn't have, but I started to eavesdrop.

"No…" She said into the phone. "No, I haven't gotten the chance… yes… he hasn't… I know… I don't now if I'll duel him yet… he won't release the information… I don't know if I could get him to give it to me. I haven't been able to talk to him… I couldn't just ignore it, he was hurt… I know… I know… I get it!... I will, I'll get it for you… Why don't you do... I know… I know… I saw it… Could you stop it with the world domination thing? It's getting old… I totally get it… Fine… Fine… I'll try… No, it_ is_ good enough. Bye… Yes! I will!... bye." She snapped her phone shut and sighed. She turned to walk out and saw me. Her face lost all its color and she stopped in her tracks.

"Interesting phone call." I said with a smile. "World domination?" Claire forced a laugh. She was a really bad actress.

"It's my friend, she wants Jaden's autograph." Her voice was cracking and she was talking too quickly. "She has all of the other duelists she wants and she says that when she gets Jaden's, she'll rule the world." The story sort of worked, but for some reason, perhaps the way she was fidgeting and sweating, I didn't believe her.

"Sure." I said and began to walk away.

"Zane, wait!" I turned around, her foot was moving around nervously and she was twisting a strand of hair around her finger, something that I had never seen her do before. "Please don't tell Aster. He can't know about this call." She looked like she was about to burst into tears if I said no. I paused to think. If I did tell Aster, then he would probably get angry, judging by her posture and reactions, but it would be a cruel thing to do. Then again, I sort of wanted Aster to be angry. But from what I had heard from Mai and Claire's conversation, the two of them really did care about each other deeply. What could be so bad about a phone call that it would ruin a "love" like that? I was still pondering when I saw her blue eyes, big and scared, then my answer was made for me.

"I won't."

--

**Frostosaurus**

**Monster**

**Six Stars**

**Attack/2600 Defense/1700**

**Dinosaur**

**Normal**

**This monster's metabolism enables it to endure long periods of cold, harnessing the power to become a creature of solid ice! Nothing else can withstand such temperatures, especially victims of its glacial rampage.**

**A Legendary Ocean**

**Continuous Spell**

**This card's name is treated as "Umi". Downgrade all WATER monsters in both player's hands and on the field by 1 level. Increases the ATK and DEF of all WATER monsters by 200 points.**

**Tornado Wall**

**Continuous Trap**

**This card can only be activated when "Umi" is active on the field. AS long as "Umi" remains face-up on the field, any damage from attacking monsters to your Life Points becomes 0. When "Umi" is removed from the field, this card is also destroyed.**

**Ocean Dragon Lord Neo-Daedalus**

**Monster**

**Eight Stars**

**Attack/2900 Defense/1600**

**Sea Serpent**

**Effect**

**Send "Umi" on your side of the field to the Graveyard to send all cards in both players' hands and on the field to the Graveyard, except this card.**

**Terrorking Salmon**

**Monster**

**Five Stars**

**Attack/2400 Defense/1000**

**Fish**

**Normal**

**A feared salmon, master of the Sea of Darkness. Its roe is the best delicacy in the World of Darkness.**

**Space Mambo**

**Monster**

**Four Stars**

**Attack/1700 Defense/1000**

**Fish**

**Normal**

**A Space Mambo floating in the vast universe. This living relic was found in the ruins of a super civilization on Alphard 4.**

**All of these cards are in the English TCG and are not made up. And no, this isn't my deck, this is based off of a friend's deck. (My deck is a lot better, no offense.) Yay! And who caught the plot? (And don't you dare ask me, 'where was the plot?')  
**

**Aster-Ready to go march?**

**Me-Never**

**Aster-Yes, forever!**

**Zane-Review before they keep quoting Jekyll and Hyde.**

**Aster-For I'll live inside you forever with Satan himself by my side…**


	6. Fairy Tales

**I freaking love this chapter and I hope that all ya'll love it as much as I do. I know I had fun writing it.**

**Duel! Magazine**

_Love at Kaiba's Tournament_

_At Seto Kaiba's Blue-Eyes Under Twenty-Five tournament, love is in the air. It seems that everyone in the finals have been pairing off and finding their true love._

_Semi-finalist Zane Truesdale, twenty-three, and finalist Alexis Rhodes, twenty-two, are two of the lucky people to be in love. After meeting at Duel Academy during Zane's junior year and Alexis's freshman, the two fell in love. Zane began courting her after Zane's "dark phase" and they dated for a year. They've been engaged for three months, and their wedding date is not set._

_But the real story is between Professional duelist Aster Phoenix, twenty, and newcomer Claire Rodgers, twenty. Both Phoenix and Rodger's parents met tragic ends while the two were young. Having been inseparable childhood friends (their fathers worked together at Industrial Illusions, Phoenix's as a card designer and Rodger's as a card tester), they were torn apart when Aster's father disappeared when he was around the age of 8 (five years later he was declared dead). He then was taken into custody by famous duelist, The D. Claire's mother, a few months after Aster's father's disappearance, died of undiagnosed stomach cancer. Shortly after her father took his own life due to grief. Maximillion Pegasus, her father's employer, soon adopted Claire. When asked why he decided to adopt her, he commented that he was "smitten" by Claire's intelligence and "felt just terrible" about her situation. After losing his wife to disease, he never had any children, but always wanted one. The adoption was kept quiet, until very recently, only a select few had known about it. Aster and Claire were separated until they were fifteen._

_That year Aster won a professional dueling tournament and was asked to attend a dinner at Pegasus's private island. It was there that the two teenagers were re-introduced._

"_It was like love at first sight." Said a first-hand witness, who wished to remain anonymous. "He saw her across the dance floor, she saw him. They started to walk towards each other, but people were in the way." With a laugh he added, "Claire knocked into a couple that was dancing and fell over, Aster sprinted over and helped her up. A smile spread across each of their faces, it was so adorable. They immediately started dancing to the waltz that was playing. I don't think I've ever seen two people who were happier than those two. It was as if they were in a movie or a fairy tale."_

_The two immediately bonded and were inseparable during Aster's time on the island. The two kept a tight correspondence from then on._

"_I heard the first thing he did when he got off the island was send Claire an e-mail." Says our anonymous source. "Before his plane even left they were on the phone with each other."_

_This correspondence kept up until they saw each other at the Blue-Eyes tournament, seemingly unknowing that the other would be there._

"_I was dueling Aster when he saw her." Says Cyrus Truesdale, 20, the brother of finalist Zane Truesdale. "His face lip up and he had this dreamy look in his eyes. He said 'Excuse me' to me and ran over to her. Her back was turned and he tapped her on the shoulder, her face grew into this gigantic smile and they hugged. He even lifted her off the ground and spinned her around. It was so cute. Aster came back after that to finish dueling me but every few minutes, he'd look over his shoulder to make sure that she was still there. When we were done he ran back over to her and they began to kiss. It was sickening… but sweet." Cyrus also added that he is single and looking for a girlfriend. Anyone who is interested should call his hotel room at the Chateau d'Kaiba. _

_Since the moment that they saw each other at the tournament, the two have been, yet again, inseparable. There have been more than a few instances where they have been seen holding hands, kissing, hugging or showing other public displays of affection around the city. Phoenix's publicity agent did not comment, but Pegasus had only raving reviews for his adopted daughter's beaux._

"_Aster's is such sweet boy." He says. "Claire has made a fantastic choice. Hopefully there will be wedding bells in the future!" Claire has already advanced to the semi-finals by beating Alexis Rhodes and Aster will be dueling Jesse Anderson tomorrow to earn the right to continue to the semi-finals._

_There are also rumors of a secret romance between Jaden Yuki and Jesse Anderson. These two twenty year-olds have been seen canoodling around town with each other multiple times. There have been no true evidence of a romantic relationship, but rumors report that they have been holding hands around town and sitting in private, secluded booths in restaurants. Both have declined to comment._

_This isn't the first time that there have been rumors of a relationship between the two duelists, reportedly, Jaden searched multiple damentions in order to find the duelist. Though they won't admit to the match, some of their friends are thrilled._

"_They're perfect for each other," Says Jim Cook, twenty-one, who went to school with the lovebirds. His crocidile Shirley seemed to agree. "Those mates were destined for each other._

_We'll be reporting on the progress of the tournament as it goes, and we'll keep special reports on the romance._

--

I shook my head. This crap couldn't be true, it was too much like a fairy tale. Things like that just don't happen outside of books and movies. And the fact that my brother was adding to this lie was outrageous. It was preposterous. All of it. Tabloid fodder. Their relationship was all just mind-games. Besides, someone as esteemed as Pegasus, would never comment on something like this, even as girly and strange a man as he was, he was still man enough not to read this shit.

Alexis looked over my shoulder at the magazine.

"What's this?" she asked.

"Crap." She looked as if she wanted to know more. I sighed. "It's Duel! Magazine. It got delivered to our room this morning. But it's just a tabloid. Look at it."

She quickly read through the article, and smiled. For some reason unknown to me.

"That's adorable! Except I really don't think that Jesse and Jaden are having a love affair, that's a bit farfetched. And Shirley having her own comment, that's a little weird." I looked at her curiously, she was so gullible.

"Don't you think the story about Claire and Aster is a little farfetched as well?" I asked her.

"No, that stories true." She looked at _me_ curiously. "Didn't you know that? It's not like Claire and Aster are hiding it." I put my head in my hands and shook my head again. At least it made a little more sense now, Claire and Aster had been in love since they were kids. "But the thing about us was cute." She wrapped her arms around me and smiled. "I'm going to go get dressed now." She told me and left. I sat at the table and tried to figure things out. It explained why Aster was so easily provoked when Claire was the subject. And why Mai had asked when they were going to get engaged. The only thing it didn't explain was what Claire was on the phone about.

Alexis came out a minute later, fully dressed.

"I'm going out for the day," she said with a smile. "I'll see you later." She grabbed her purse as I nodded in acknowledgement. She waved goodbye, and left. As soon she was out the door I put my head down on the table and swore. After a moment, I got up. I didn't know what I was going to do with my day, since there were no duels going on, but I sure as hell wasn't going to sit around and mope.

I showered and got dressed, then headed out. On my way out of the hotel doors, I literally bumped into my little brother.

"Zane, there you are! We all tried to call you, but you didn't pick-up your phone." I took out my cell and saw that I had four missed calls, two from my brother, one from Atticus and one from Jaden. I had no idea how the latter got my number, but it wasn't worth pondering.

"Sorry." I told him, not really knowing how we could actually be related. The differences in us were just too great.

"It's okay." He grabbed my arm and started to drag me behind him. "We're not late yet."

"What are we not late for Cyrus?"

"The party Zane!" I just stopped asking, with Cyrus, it was just stupid, and besides, it didn't seem like Cyrus would give me any more information anyway, he was far to busy trying to get us to the "party".

We were there in ten minutes. And by there, I mean Industrial Illusions' Domino City headquarters. The only thing that ran through my head was 'oh shit.' This party must have been set-up by Pegasus for his adopted daughter, which probably meant that I wouldn't be very welcome there. But despite that, Cyrus continued to drag me into the building. We stopped at the receptionist's desk to tell her where we were headed, but she already seemed to know.

"Down this hall, take the elevator on the right to floor thirty-seven, go straight until you hit the door with the Funny Bunny on it, enter that and you're there." We began to walk away, but the receptionist stopped us. "Sorry, I just wanted to introduce myself, my name's Jessica and I'm a huge fan of yours," I got ready to thank her. "Cyrus." It took all of my class and respect not to let my mouth hang open. She quickly scribbled something onto a piece of paper and handed it to my brother. "Call me." She told him with a wink. He laughed nervously and then we were off.

It took us less time than I thought it would to get to the party, which meant less time to mentally prepare myself, and less time to plan my escape. But time was out, and we stepped inside.

--

**So I hope that all ya'll loved it. I really did love writing this chapter. Duel! Magazine will come back again. Writing it gets rid of my strange urge to write for a tabloid. My parents would never stop crying if I would. Hehe. **

**Zane- There's no plot in this chapter.**

**Me- I know. It'll be a few chapters before it comes in again.**

**Zane- Why do you hate plots so much?**

**Me- Because real life doesn't have a plot.**

**Zane- And they call me emo.**

**Aster- Review!**


	7. Partay

**Hello everyone. Just another chapter, nothing else exciting to report. Oh well. Hope all ya'll enjoy it.**

**DISCLAIMER: (I forgot this in the last chapter, oops.) I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh or Yu-Gi-Oh GX. If I did then they would sell life-size action figures of the sexy characters. (Yum. Zane, Aster, Bakura, Marik, Duke Deviln! My God, I'd never leave my basement.) (Yes, that is slightly disgusting.) **

How I ended up sitting in between Ishizu Ishtar and some guy named Alistar for three freaking hours, I'll never know. We were all seated at a long table, and even though I wasn't exactly late, I still had limited choices on seating. But I had never felt quite so uncomfortable and awkward in my entire life. And it didn't help that Mai Valentine-Wheeler was sitting across from me shooting dirty looks my way every few minutes. And the fact that Claire and Aster were next to her, snuggling and acting cute the entire time didn't help either. Actually, it made me feel slightly nauseated.

If I were someone like Jaden, for example, I would have enjoyed this get-together. Famous duelists from, literally, the entire world were there and we were able to mingle with them. Jaden was running around and introducing himself to every duelist there, trying to collect tips and trade cards. Atticus, who was luckily seated next to Vivien Wong and Rebecca Hawkins, was flirting and charming the two attractive girls. Claire and Aster were too fixated on each other to notice anyone else in the room. Everyone seemed to be enjoying himself or herself and finding their niche, except for me. Even Cyrus was having a good conversation with Weevil Underwood about how to get girls even if you're short and have blue hair. I was contemplating whether or not my acting abilities were good enough to fake a headache when there was a tap on my shoulder.

"Zane Truesdale?" Seto Kaiba asked me, though it didn't sound much like a question.

"Yes?"

"We have to talk." He motioned for me to get up and follow him. As I did, I was silently thanking him for the opportunity to get away from the lovebirds. We went into a more secluded corner of the room and he began. "Now let's make this short and sweet. I've heard that you physically assaulted a fellow duelist, Aster Phoenix, I believe. Is this true?"

"Yes, but he pinned me against the elevator first." I said in my defense. Kaiba just laughed.

"I admire your spunk kid, but I know that you were the one who provoked it in the first place." I stood silent. "Now Truesdale, normally that sort of behavior would get you kicked out of any of my tournaments, but since you're my favorite to win, I'll like it slide. This time." I was surprised. Kaiba was not known as a nice man, or even a humanly decent man, but he was letting me stay in his tournament.

"Thank you." I told him as I began to walk off.

"Truesdale. Wait." He said in a voice that could scare the fiercest beings on the planet. "Win this tournament and you will be the new face of KaibaCorp. Don't screw this up." And with that, Kaiba walked off.

"Zane!" Atticus yelled from across the room as he beckoned me over. I sighed and walked over to my over-exuberant friend.

"Yes?" I asked him as he looked at his two lady friends and nodded, giving the signal that he'd be back in a few. He dragged me a few feet away.

"Zane, dude, where's my little sis?" He asked with concern in his eyes.

"Atticus," I told him, "your over protectiveness knows no bounds." I saw that the statement hurt him, so I sighed and told him what I knew. "She said that she was going out today, that's all I know."

Atticus looked contemplative for a moment, a strange thing for Atticus to look like. "I knew that she didn't want to see Claire today, but I didn't think she would want to miss an opportunity like this." He frowned. "I mean, her favorite duelist is even here." I had forgotten that Mai was Alexis's favorite duelist, and even her role model. I guess she wouldn't be anymore if she knew what Mai thought about her. I sighed; joining this tournament was a huge mistake.

"I don't know Atticus, I didn't even know that she was avoiding Claire." Atticus looked shocked for a second, then shrugged.

"Whatever dude." Atticus said with a frustrated sigh. In a moment he changed back to his usual perky self. He winked at me and looked over his shoulder to the ladies. "Duty calls." He told me with a wink as he walked back and suavely put his arms around the shoulders of the two girls. I was about to leave when I heard Pegasus's loud, flamboyant voice coming from across the room.

"Could everyone please be seated for a moment?" He asked, and everyone instantly obeyed. I took a seat next to Rebecca, whose eyes were glued to Atticus. "Thank you." He said with a girlish giggle that made everyone shift uncomfortably in their chairs, except for Aster and Claire, of course. "Before we disperse back into the real world, I'd like to say a few things. First, I'd like to congratulate all of you for making into the finals, or…" he winked at Cyrus, who's face turned a bright shade of red, "knowing someone who did. Second, I'd like to thank all of these fine duelists who wasted their entire day just to help out little old me. And last, but not least, I'd like to give my congratulations to my beautiful daughter Claire on her engagement to the talented Mr. Aster Phoenix." There was a loud round of applause from everyone in the room. Claire's face was red, and Aster had his arm pulling her into him, who was smiling broadly. There was no doubt by anyone that it was the happiest moment of his life. Or it was at least very high-ranking. I was able to feebly clap my hands, a miracle, considering the fact that I had stopped breathing. My heart was beating too quickly, not from my disease, and my stomach was doing flip-flops. My mind was racing. Claire was engaged to Aster; Claire was going to _marry_ him. It shouldn't have gotten to me, it was wrong that it got to me like this. I was not supposed to be in love with Claire. I didn't know her. I had barely spoken to her! And when I did, it was awkward or rude. But then why was I feeling suicidal?

I walked out the door as quickly as possible. I didn't turn back until I heard his voice behind me.

"Hey Zane!" Aster shouted, from behind me. I didn't want to, but I stopped.

"Yes?" I asked him bitterly. Why was he chasing after me when he should be getting congratulations from all of the famous people, his friends, in there? Why would he waste his time with me?

"Dude, I just wanted to see if everything's cool between us. I knew that we were never the best of friends, but it would be great if we didn't get into a fist fight every time we see each other." His usual pessimistic look wasn't in his eyes, and he seemed to be almost sincere.

"Fine." I said, "We're… cool." I began to walk again. As I turned around in the elevator to choose my floor, I saw Aster and Claire, at the same place Aster and I were a few seconds ago, close together, talking. As the doors closed they went in for a kiss.

It was the first time I saw it. The ring on her left hand. It was lovely, and something that she would have loved. A large onyx stone in the middle with small diamonds all around it, on a silver band. It looked old-fashioned, probably a family heirloom. It seemed to fit her perfectly.

I could feel the rage welling up in me again. It took all the will power I had not to stop the doors from closing and pulling him off of her. I wanted to. I wanted to pull him off of her, snap his neck and take Claire. I wanted to kiss her until we died. I wanted to marry her, and have a family with her.

But I let the doors close.

But as they did, I uttered these words. "No, Aster, we're not cool."

--

When I got home, Alexis wasn't there. It was cruel, but I was relieved. I did _not_ feel like telling her why I was in such a sour mood. I took off my shirt and collapsed onto my bed. After a few minutes, I was fast asleep, even though it was only 8:00.

Even in my dreams, I saw the ring.

**Zane- Again with the OC-ness?**

**Me- As much as I hate to admit it, yes. But I **_**am**_** writing another fic where not only are you very in character, but you actually acknowledge your heart condition occasionally!**

**Zane- Yay?**

**Aster- Review.**


	8. An Unfortunate Night

**Gah. I can't figure out if this is one of my favorite or least favorite chapters I've written. All I know is that I can't stand to re-read it, even to edit, so if there are mistakes, please don't tell me. I didn't want this chapter to happen, but it did. And my soul broke a little as I was writing it.**

The obnoxious ringing of our room's doorbell awaked me. It was only 8:42.

I muttered "What kind of crap-ass hotel has doorbells in their rooms?" as I got to the door, still rubbing the sleep from my eyes. I opened the door, expecting to see Alexis, having forgotten her room key or something. Instead, Claire was standing there with a bottle of champagne in her hands.

"Is Alexis here?" she asked with a sincere smile. I was suddenly all too aware of the fact that I had no shirt on.

"No, sorry." I told her, crossing the hands over my exposed chest.

"Do you know when she'll be home?" She asked me, not letting the subject drop, even though I wished that she would leave.

"No more than you do."

"Don't you have some clue? You're her fiancé and roommate after all." She gave a slight giggle.

"None at all." I said with sarcasm. "Would you like to wait here for her?" I asked her with even more.

"Yes I would, thank you." She said as she came into the room. I was taken completely and utterly by surprise.

"I didn't mean..." I stammered out. The last thing in the world I wanted was Claire to be here. It would be too awkward. It would be too… hard for me.

"But you did. So I'm here. At least for a bit." She smiled and sat down on the couch in the front room and but the bottle of champagne on the table. I shrugged, and went to go put a shirt on. When I came back into the room Claire was staring up at the ceiling, looking bored. I stood and stared for a moment. She was beautiful.

"Take a picture, it will last longer." She said, not moving her head. It was uncanny how she always knew when someone was looking at her, or listening to her without even seeing them. I was really beginning to think that she _was _related to Sartorius.

"Why are you here?" I asked her. Her head didn't move an inch as she answered.

"Alexis wasn't at the party today, I wanted to see if she was okay." She answered simply. "I would have really liked it if she could have come, and so I thought I'd come to her."

"And the booze?" This time she looked at me and smiled.

"A gift from one engaged couple to another." Hearing her say that made my senses go insane. Engaged. It was true, Claire was engaged to Aster. And there was nothing I could do to stop it. And then there was the other part, I was engaged as well. I did not want to be engaged, especially to Alexis. There was only one person who I would ever even consider being engaged to. And she was sitting so near to me.

"I don't think that I'll be engaged much longer." I told Claire quietly.

"Neither will I. We're already trying to pick a date. We want to get married before the years up." She had a dreamy look in here eyes; she didn't have any idea that she had completely mistaken what I had said.

"I don't mean it like that." She looked over at me with a puzzled face. "I mean that I don't love Alexis. I never have, and I probably never will." A horrified look came across Claire's face. I continued. "Because how could someone, anyone, for that mater, love someone like Alexis, when there are people like you?"

We looked at each other in silence for a moment. Me being expressionless, like I always was, and Claire, who's beautiful blue eyes looked cold and scared.

"Zane, I hope you don't misunderstand my reasons for coming here," she said slowly, exaggerating each word. "I wanted to patch things up between all of us, not…" she stopped and got up. "Goodbye Zane." She said as she started to walk to the door. I quickly got up and grabbed her arm. She struggled for a moment. "Zane let me leave!" She screamed as she tried to push me to get free.

"Claire, I know you feel the same way about me. I love you Claire. Now tell me that you love me." I told her calmly, not loosening my grip.

"I do not love you Zane." She said coldly. "Now let me go!" She screamed, nearly in tears. Realizing that I wasn't about to let her go, she started to scream louder. "ASTER!" She yelled. I pulled her into my chest, and muffled her mouth.

"He won't hear you Claire." I paused and moved her head up to look at me. She looked scared, and tears were running down her face. I pushed her head back into my chest and began to stroke her hair. "Besides, why would you even care about that pansy when you can have me?" I asked her, as I pulled her face out of my chest again and put my hands firmly on her shoulders.

"Why?" She asked me angrily, the tears coming out faster. She began speaking slowly, but as she continued and became more and more angry her words came out faster and louder, until she was screaming at me. "Maybe because Aster is a sweet, kind, and loyal gentleman, whereas you are a crazy, sex-bent, insane bastard, who is also a liar! Now let me go!" She began to writhe around and I pulled her back into my chest.

"Now, now Claire." I said as I began to stroke her hair with one hand, having the other on her lower back, making sure she stayed in place. "Don't make such a fuss. You know that you don't really love Aster." As soon as I said that she applied a hard force to my torso. It made me loose my grip on her momentarily. She tried to run off, but I grabbed her wrist just in time.

"I love Aster!" she said loudly in a rough tone. Then in a soft, quiet voice she added, "I've loved him since before I can remember." I looked at her face, and I knew she wasn't lying. I didn't want to believe it, but it was obvious. I contemplated letting her go, but then I got an idea.

"If you love him so much, then you wouldn't want him to know about that phone call you were making. What are you stealing Claire? What could be more important than your love for Aster?" Suddenly the color drained from her face and she stopped squirming.

"I don't have a choice about that. Once I get it, I'll be free." She said. Her eyes were unfocused and she was barely breathing.

"I won't tell him." Her face lit up momentarily. "If, you kiss me." She opened her mouth to answer, but I was too quick. I pulled her into a hard violent kiss. It was exhilarating. Everything about it felt right. I never knew that kissing could make me feel like this. Whenever I had kissed Alexis, it felt wrong. It felt forced. Our faces seemed to fit together perfectly, and though I had to lean down a ways to reach her lips, it was not uncomfortable. I had never been happier in my life than when I was kissing Claire. Heck, I hadn't lived until I had kissed her. I felt the stiffness coming in my pants, and even though I knew that she wasn't exactly willing, I knew what would be coming next.

Claire struggled and squirmed as we kissed, but I was bigger and stronger than she was. I was getting ready to lift her shirt up when the door to the room suddenly opened.

I moved my head up to see who it was, and it didn't surprise me. Alexis stood open-mouthed for a moment then ran off, probably crying, and left the door open. Claire took the moment of peace to jam her knee into my privates and she ran off as well. I could hear her calling for Alexis as she ran out the door.

As soon as the pain that was caused by Claire ceased I grinned with a grim satisfaction. I had gotten some of what I wanted. Alexis would never be back, and Claire would be back soon enough. Knowing Aster, as soon as he found out that he had been betrayed, their engagement would be off. He was as loyal as a dog to her, but he expected the same from her in return.

Everything was working out perfectly.

Then I remembered the words had called me on the night that Aster and I got into the fistfight.

An insane bastard.

And now I knew the answer to my question.

But I knew more now.

I was even more insane and even more of a bastard that Claire, or myself, had ever imagined that I'd be.

"Hey moon, please forget to fall down, hey moon, don't you fall down."

-Panic At The Disco, Northern Downpour

End of Book One


	9. Moving the Stars

Book Two: Aster

"Everything I've done, I've done for you. I move the stars for no one."

-David Bowie, Within You (From Labyrinth)

--

I smiled as I walked into the dueling arena. Life was going great. If everything went as planned, this would be my final professional dueling tournament, and I wanted to win. And knowing that my good luck charm would be there, I knew I would.

For years I had only dreamed that life could be this great. Ever since my dad had disappeared, there was always a black cloud over my life, but now that cloud was disappearing. I had the love of my life, and she was going to marry me. I had finally found the love that I wanted so much. I had known it was there my entire life, but I never had known that it was returned until recently.

We had known each other since we were children. Even then I knew that I would marry her. My parents would laugh when I told them that I loved Claire. They said I should keep my options open; maybe someday someone else would come. But they were just being silly.

Claire was my soul mate.

And her mere presence at the duel would assure my victory.

I walked in; my head held up high and took my place in the dueling arena across from Jesse Anderson. I scanned the audience for her, my good luck charm, my life, my Claire. She was sitting near the back, slightly unusual. Claire always liked being near the front. She was nearsighted; she probably wouldn't be able to see most of what was going on. And there was something wrong with her, the bright clothes that she usual wore were gone, she was just wearing black. And she had a large welt on her neck, something that she tried to cover up with a scarf. Her eyes were wide and scared looking. More than anything I wanted to run up to her and ask her what was wrong, but I couldn't, the duel was starting. I tried to give her a smile, but she was staring of into space. It worried me.

Then the duel started, and I tried to forget about her sad face.

--

I won. It was close, but I did win. After the duel ended I tried to find Claire in the cheering crowd again, but she had already left. She must have been backstage, waiting for me. I knew she was, she wouldn't have just left. As soon as I could I rushed backstage to meet her. But instead of Claire, Alexis was waiting for me.

"Aster." She said in an unusually quiet voice. "Can we talk?" She looked worried or sad about something.

"Sure." I told her as I looked up and down the hallway to see if Claire was backstage yet. Alexis snapped her fingers in front of my face to get my attention. "Oh, sorry."

She waved off the apology and began. "Last night." Alexis said, with a slight tremble in her voice. She began again, only this time her voice was stronger. "Last night I came into my room and our fiancé's were… kissing. But if I hadn't come in when I did, I was sure that it would have gone further."

--

My world stopped.

--

It was as if everything had disappeared.

I was sure that Alexis was still talking, but it didn't matter.

All the sadness from my life came back in that moment. Everything that I had been hiding from myself in my few moments of bliss. My father, the D, everything. The fact that I lost everything that I had loved. The fact that my life had taken a turn from the worse ever since I set foot at Duel Academy. It all came back.

--

I snapped out of my daze in what seemed like years, but was actually minutes.

She was walking down the hallway.

For a moment I had forgotten what she had done.

For a moment, I only felt joy. Joy at seeing the blue eyes that I had dreamed of for so long come down the hallway, looking for me.

Then I remembered, and my joy was replaced with anger.

"Bye Aster." Alexis told me as she walked away, looking at me with a sympathetic look. Claire walked up to me, and we stood silent for a moment. I was swelled with anger. I had never been angrier in my life. My father, The D, Sartorius, nothing ever felt like this. But the thing that was there, that wasn't with the others was the knowledge that my life couldn't go on without her. Well, it would never be the way I wanted. Of course, I loved my father. But I had learned to move on, to forgive and forget. It was different with Claire. I knew that I wouldn't last long. Imagining my life without those eyes, no matter how angry I was, was no life at all. As much as she had hurt me, I knew that I would give my life for hers in a second.

"Hi." She said as she stroked a bruise on her hand. A bruise that Zane probably gave her while they were cheating. Then my anger tripled. With one final look into her eyes I began to live my worst nightmare.

"I know what you did." I told her, with my eyes locked just below her eyes, not being able to fully look into them, so sad and intense.

"Please Aster, let me expl…" she began to say, and I saw a tear trickle down her cheek.

"No need to." I spat at her. "Alexis told me. Did you have fun Claire? Did you enjoy it? You said you'd be back in ten minutes Claire. You weren't, I trusted you. I thought that maybe you got into a conversation or something. But no, you were too busy…" I couldn't bring myself to say the word and my voice cracked. "Enjoying yourself. Well Claire, go enjoy yourself. You can go enjoy yourself all you want. It's not my concern." I turned to walk away, willing myself not to cry, to be strong, when I felt her warm hand on my arm.

"Aster." She told me, "Please wait." I paused and closed my eyes, knowing this was probably the last time she would ever touch me. I wanted to keep this moment in my mind forever before I had to do what I was about to do. I turned around and said it.

"Don't you dare you little slut!" I yelled at her. "You think that you can kiss every guy who walks by you when you're with me?!" I asked her, hating myself for it. "I don't think so! Now leave me alone!" I stalked off, only looking behind me when I was at the door. Claire was still standing in the same place, tears silently streaming down her face. I walked out.

I stood outside of the door for a few minutes, and then opened it again. I couldn't live without Claire, I just couldn't do it. I needed to apologize. I needed to… be with her. But when I looked back inside, she was gone.

**Gah. The OC-ness runs rapid in this chapter. Meh. It did make me really sad to write it though. I hope you liked it. Read, review, the usual.**

**Aster-Do you honestly think I'd ever say this?**

**Me-No, not really. **

**Zane-Good, because he sounds like a total pansy.**

**Aster-Even as an OC I could never be a pansy.**

**Zane-Wanna bet? Just look at the episodes you were in Aster? When did you ever do anything that **_**wasn't**_** pansy-ish?**

**Aster-Hey…**

**Me-Review before these two get into a fist fight.**

**Zane-What about Sartorius?**

**Aster-I've told you a million times, we're just friends!**

**Zane-Oh really…?**

**Aster-COME HERE!**

**Me-Ooops. Too late.**


	10. Have Another Drink

**HOLY FREAKING SHIZNIT, I HAVE GOT REVIEWS! Look up everyone, up there at the number of reviews. It has gone from 3 to 12. Wow. Special kudos to UchihaHakura64 and MoonDaySquealer for your awesome reviews. You took one of the worst days of my life and totally turned it around. Thank you guys! I also just want to say thanks to everyone. Hits have gone WAY up in the past few days and it's just great. Thank you for reading this, it means a ton. Now read, relax, enjoy. Aster's completely and utterly angsty and it totally pained me to write this.**

I walked around the city. I couldn't go back to the hotel room, it was too early, and I couldn't just sit around all night thinking about… her. So instead I found myself wandering the streets of Domino City aimlessly, trying not to think.

After a few hours I found myself in the south side of town, at a bar. It didn't have really bad people, but it was still the kind of place that if I were feeling sane, I wouldn't have gone into. But I wasn't really feeling that sane, so I did.

When I walked inside, I got quite a few stares. Apparently not many young men dressed in business casual came into this bar often. It seemed that most of the men were wearing leather, or something along the same lines of refinement. The women were wearing as little as possible, and most of them looked like they had been bruised, beaten or hadn't had enough sleep in a few years. I walked up to the bar and took a seat. The bartender, who was pouring a frothy beer from a tap into a frosted glass, gave me a nod. He gave the drink to a leather-clad man and came over to me.

"Rough day kid?" He asked me. I wondered if it was really that obvious that I was more miserable than I had been in my entire life.

"You have no idea." I told him.

"But he won his duel at least." Came a heavily accented voice from a man walking up to the bar. I recognized him immediately from Pegasus's party. His name was Valon, a former member of the Domas Organization.

"You a duelist?" The bartender asked me.

"Yeah." I told him.

"A duelist?" Valon asked with a smile. "Are you serious John? This kids one of the best duelists since Yugi Moutou himself!" I smiled at the relative stranger and looked back down at the table, sitting in front of me was a dark colored liquid in a glass.

"Here kid, I know you're underage, but it'll make the pain go away." I nodded grimly to John and took a swig. It tasted terrible, but I continued to drink it. Valon talked to John, but I just sat there drinking the liquid. It was probably whisky or brandy, but I couldn't tell. I had never drunk anything more than a glass of champagne before. The pain hit me again as I thought of it. The place where I had drunk that was where… I took another swig of the drink. It was all I could do, talking was too hard, and sitting still was too painful. Valon turned his face to me after a few moments.

"What'd she do mate?" He asked me.

I took a large sip of my drink. "Cheated."

"With one of your friends?"

"No, an enemy." Valon shook his head.

"Mate, I know it's hard, but you gotta get over it. Have some fun. It'll help. Believe me mate, I've been there, and there's only one way to get over it." He smiled and signaled John over and ordered us another round.

I was still depressed as hell, but from what I could remember from the night, I did sort of enjoy myself.

The alcohol helped a lot.

--

_**Duel! Magazine**_

_The Phoenix Takes Flight_

_Last night at John's Pub on the south side of Domino, top duelist Aster Phoenix, 20 had a fun night. After reportedly breaking-up with fiancé and fellow duelist Claire Rodgers, 20 he went out drinking, at the locally famous pub. Witnesses say that he met up with famous duelist Valon, 32 who helped him ease the pain of his harsh break-up._

_Them, along with a few other patrons got up and danced on the tables and sung karaoke. Apparently Aster sung "Bye, Bye, Bye" by the Back Street Boys with Valon and a fellow, unidentified, patron, and a heart-wrenching rendition of "Don't Stop Belevin'" by Journey, which lead some of the more intoxicated people in the bar to spontaneously burst into tears._

_"You could tell that he was passionate." Said bar-goer Anton Multov. "You would never think that he was from the things you see on TV, but that Aster guy, he's a real softie. Real broken up about the break-up too. He looked like crap when he came in."_

_Aster apparently had a few too many drinks and passed out an hour after his karaoke fun. Valon took him in a cab back to his hotel and helped him into his room. They were back at about 3:45 am. Valon apparently made quite a racket as he came in which caused a few guests to call the front desk with complaints._

_"Aster was moaning quite loudly," said Bastian Misawa, a fellow duelist and a patron of the hotel. "And Valon was swearing. It's not exactly the sort of thing that a person wants to hear at four a.m."_

_Phoenix and Rodgers apparently had split after Aster's duel yesterday. Rodgers reportedly cheated on Phoenix with fellow duelist Zane Truesdale the night before. Both Zane and Claire declined to comment. Alexis Rhodes, Truesdale's former fiancé, caught the two and left him immediately._

_When asked about the split Alexis told us "She thought that they were in love, but apparently that wasn't true." She also told us "I had suspected Claire from the beginning. You have to look at it from the outside. Her entire relationship with Aster? Too much of a fairy tale. There was always something fishy going on there. I guess she just doesn't know boundaries when it comes to dueling and relationships. She's sure ruined enough of them in this tournament." _

_Miss Rhodes told Aster immediately after his duel, and he broke-up with Claire when he saw her a few moments later._

_"It was loud and terrible." Said an anonymous witness. "He called her terrible names. I didn't really understand it. She never seemed like the type. And the two of them… they just seemed so perfect together, like a match made in heaven." Maximillion Pegasus, Claire's guardian refused to comment, but we were told by his publicist that he was very disappointed by his adopted daughter's actions, but he really only cares about her happiness and well-being._

_Phoenix's late night escapades could get him into some trouble though. Seto Kaiba, the sponsor of the Blue-Eyes Under Twenty-Five tournament that Aster is currently participating in is not known to bend rules, and it clearly states in the rulebook that there was supposed to be no under-age drinking, doing drugs, smoking, etc. to set an example for the children who idolize the duelists who participate in these tournaments. It is unknown whether or not Phoenix will still be allowed to participate in the tournament; Kaiba's publicist has made no comment. But his actions with Zane Truesdale, who had gotten into a fistfight with Phoenix a few days earlier, imply that he will give Phoenix a break as he did with Zane._

_"He's a bad example to everyone out there." Says concerned mother Serenity Taylor. "I don't want my children to see that kind of behavior associated with dueling. It's supposed to be a more wholesome sport than most." A contrasting opinion comes from fellow duelist Joey Wheeler._

_"He was just going through a rough time. Breaking up with someone that you love is the hardest thing in the world." Said Wheeler, a reported friend of both Aster and Claire. When asked whether or not he thought that the two would get back together he replied that, "If it's meant to be, it's meant to be. No one really knows."_

_Whether or not it the relationship between Phoenix and Rodgers (or Truesdale and Rodgers) is meant to work out is unknown, but it is known that last night will be a night that Phoenix will not be likely to forget._

**I hope you liked it. As usual, I'm going to give my begging here for reviews. Please oblige. Getting reviews is better than getting Christmas presents.**

**Aster- The D didn't give me Christmas presents.**

**Zane- Shut up pansy boy.**

**Aster- Hey, this chapter wasn't all about you getting drunk. And do you really think that I would sing Bye Bye Bye if I were ever going to sing karaoke? Or for that matter, do you ever think I **_**would**_** sing karaoke?**

**Zane-Silence peon.**

**Me-Hey, did anyone catch the plot in this chapter? Oh yeah baby, there's some plot in this chapter. It's very well masked though. If you guess it, I shall give you cookies of the largest amount.**

**Aster-The D didn't give me any cookies either…**

**Me-Review!**


	11. Bloody Mary

**No one spotted the plot, which made me so depressed. It was very well hidden, but I thought **_**someone**_** would get it! No cookies for you, one year!**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh GX or Yu-Gi-Oh, because if I did then Chumley wouldn't have existed.**

The next morning my head felt as if there were a thousand people in it, all shouting in different languages. I picked up my phone and ordered breakfast from room service. I didn't feel like going downstairs, let alone out in the real world.

As I waited for my food to come I recalled the night before. I found that my memory had quite a few lapses in it. I knew that I went to a bar, and that I met with Valon, I also recalled singing some song on top of a table. I winced at that memory. Singing in public was not something that I would usually do. I usually did quite a lot to make sure that my image wasn't tarnished like that. I really didn't want to be a party-boy. After that, my memory was blank. I hoped that I hadn't done anything stupid, but from the way I was feeling this morning I knew that I had.

My food, and Bloody Mary (the best remedy for hang-over's from what I had seen on TV), came in a few minutes and I felt slightly better after I ate it. I began to feel as if everything would be okay. Maybe Claire wasn't as important to me as I thought she was, maybe I could learn to live without her.

Feeling inspired I opened the curtains to the windows of my room and looked down at the street. On the sidewalk were Claire and Zane; they seemed to be talking seriously. Claire seemed slightly upset, and Zane was obviously trying to make her feel better. From the look on Claire's face, I knew that she appreciated it. I didn't know how she could feel appreciation for anything that Zane would try to help her with. I told myself that she really wasn't the person that I thought she was. But Zane obviously noticed her gratefulness too, and he tried to grab her hand, but she pulled away. It was her left hand. I noticed that my ring was no longer on it.

I quickly closed the curtains and went back to my breakfast table. I chugged the last few sips of my Bloody Mary and rushed over to the mini bar. I grabbed a small and overpriced bottle of whisky, opened it, and chugged half of it.

I guess it would be harder than I thought it would be.

--

The next morning I was in the same state that I had been the one before. My head was pounding, my body was aching, but this time, I was miserable. I ordered the same thing for breakfast again, but minus the alcohol. It was unhealthy. I had drunk steadily the entire day and into the night. I vaguely recalled standing on top of a bridge and wondering how it would feel to jump off of it.

I had to stop.

I ate my breakfast and went downstairs. I knew I had to get away from here, if not forever, at least for the day. I went down to the concierge desk to ask what I could do to get out of town for a while when I saw it. On the cover of a magazine was a picture of me, standing on the bridge with a title saying "Is Phoenix going to commit suicide? Turn to page 25 for details."

I nearly died.

If in a different circumstance, I might have found it ironic, but I really did want to die.

I knew that there was a lot of bad press was going around about me right now, but I didn't think that the tabloids would go so far as to print that. I felt sick. Almost right on cue my cell phone rung. I picked it up without looking at the number, my eyes still fixated on the magazine photo.

"Are you okay?" Claire's worried voice asked me. The sickness that I had felt ten seconds ago was soon doubled.

"Yes." I told her sourly, wishing that she wouldn't torture me like this.

"Aster, if you need me, for anything at all, I'm there for you. Please, please…" There was a hint of desperation to her voice. "Don't do anything stupid. If not for yourself do it for m… the people who love you."

"Why do you think that I was doing something stupid?" I asked her with a harsh tone, harsher than I wanted to talk to her in. "Just because I was standing on a bridge doesn't mean that I was about to commit…" I stopped myself on the word. I couldn't say it. "Besides, why would I come to _you_ for help? You would be the last person I would ever go to." I knew that everything I was saying was a lie. I was on that bridge to kill myself. I didn't actually do it, but I could remember that I thought about it. And I also knew that all I wanted was Claire's help. Even when we were apart, she was what inspired me. When my father died, when Sartorius was with the Society of Light, she was what made me keep going. I knew that all I wanted was to have her in my arms once again.

"I'm sorry. I won't bother you again." She told me quietly as I heard her muffle a sob on the other side. "Bye, I guess."

"Bye." I whispered as I heard the line disconnect. I stood there for a moment and I knew where I had to go.

--

Two hours later I was sitting in the corner of Sartorius's fortune telling room, watching him tell a young woman's future.

"You will soon face a challenge." He said, only looking at his cards. The girl's face darkened and her eyes got wide. "But you will overcome this challenge, but with some difficulty. You should not give up." The girls face got a little brighter at his words, but it was nowhere compared to the look of happiness on her face when she first came in. "That's all the cards see in store for you today Kerrie, feel free to come back anytime." Kerrie smiled and thanked Sartorius and began to walk out. Before she left she handed me a slip of paper with her name and number on it. I sighed and put it in my pocket. It was hard work being this famous and attractive. "I saw you coming Aster." Sartorius told me, turning around with a smile on his face. "Would you care to sit down? I don't have another appointment for some time."

"Yes." I said as I took a seat. Sartorius began to shuffle his tarot cards.

"So Aster, I see that you've been having some troubles lately."

"Did you see the magazine cover?" I asked him.

"No." He said, "I have no need for those pieces of trash." He gestured to the cards in his hands. "I have different ways of finding things out."

"I know." I said with a sigh. Sartorius began lying the cards down in a familiar pattern that I still did not understand, even after knowing him for so long. "Is that my future?" I asked him, looking at the cards curiously, not seeing any familiar cards.

"No Aster, this is the future of one of your acquaintances." He flipped over a familiar card, The Lovers. "Ah..." He said with a smile on his face. "But with whom?" He muttered to himself as he flipped another card. The card seemed somewhat familiar to me, and very familiar to him. It was of a king-like figure. "That's very good. Very, very good." I was used to his strange fortune telling and muttering, but today it irked me. He lifted his eyes to mine, probably sensing my irritation. "So Aster, it seems that it's your relationship that troubles you right now." He said, his voice calm as he gathered his cards and began to shuffle his deck again.

"Yes, it is." I said, trying to keep my voice steady. I knew that this would be a subject of conversation, but I really hadn't truly talked to anyone about Claire yet, and it was hard.

"Now Aster, you are in control here. What do you want?" I knew what I wanted, but it was now unattainable. Sartorius read my face and smiled. "Ah…" He said. "You still want her." I nodded, unable to speak. "But you don't think that you can have her." I nodded again. It was still spooky the way that he could look at a person, even the most unreadable of people, and know exactly how they were feeling and why they were feeling that way. "But tell me Aster, how will you do it."

Instead of answering his question, I looked at the barren walls of the room. It was a plain place, a small wooden room that was painted a light shade of blue. The only furnishings were a small photo on the wall of Sartorius, his sister Serena, and me, a wooden chair with a royal blue velvet cushion that Sartorius sat on, a brown wooden table where he set the cards on, and another wooden chair for the person whose fortune was being told. It wasn't exactly an inviting place, but for years it had been a second home to me. Sartorius noticed my hesitation and he continued.

"She's in trouble Aster." He told me, his smile gone. "She will need your help or she shall turn to another. Aster, if you choose not to help her, she will not be saved." He began to lay his cards out once again. I stared at the cards, not really registering anything. How could Claire be in trouble? She was strong; she could take care of herself. She'd been through a lot; she had the resources she needed to survive. Hell, her stepfather was one of the richest freaking people in the world! How could she be in trouble? And why would she need anyone's help, especially mine. And what was she in trouble about? It seriously wasn't like she was in debt. And Zane didn't seem abusive. Well, minus the bruises on her arms, but that was just a one-time thing. So what could have been wrong?

Sartorius flipped over another card, yet again, it was The Lovers, but it's position was in the opposite direction. Sartorius clucked his tongue and set down another card. It was the king-like figure again.

"She had kept it from you Aster, for years. It troubles her greatly; it has since her father's death, and now it has come. She loves you, that's why she kept it from you, and that is why she kissed Zane, he knows about it."

That was the last straw.

"Sartorius," I told him, "why are you lying to me?! I came to you for the truth! Why would you tell me these things?!" I got out of my chair and went to the door. "Goodbye." I said, before I slammed it.

As I walked away I swear I heard him say that the cards didn't lie. But I didn't care. Claire didn't love me.

I went to the nearest bar.

**Gah, another really terrible chapter. It gets better soon, but there's still like two more Aster-Emo chapters.**

**Aster-OCC.**

**Me- Shut up, I know.**

**Zane- Ha, and I thought I had it bad.**

**Aster- You have no idea what it's like to have it bad. Apparently, I'm a karaoke singing alcoholic who's far to dependent on his romantic relationships with a badly developed OC.**

**Zane- Well, at least you're not a semi-insane stalker who can't stop thinking about a girl he just met who just happens to be the same OC you're in love with.**

**Aster- Should we kill the author?**

**Zane- Yeah.**

**Me- Shit. Review. I have to go runaway now.**

**Zane and Aster- GET BACK HERE!**


	12. The Ring

**Holy freaking shit. It's back. I am able to write this fic once again. It's been a month since the muse left, but now it's back!! I'm so excited. I may have never been happier than I am right now, it feels like my baby's back! (Yeah… um…) So I've written the epilogue, and now I'm going to go back and do some re-writing, then do the chapters that I didn't finish. YAY! And in other good news, this is the last emo chapter! I know, you are all cheering like there's no tomorrow, and guess what, so am I! Re-reading the shit I wrote made me feel really bad about life. But now my favorite part of the story is coming up because, unlike the rest of the story, IT HAS PLOT! YES! WOOT! HA TO YOU ALL! Okay, that's it. Enjoy.**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh or Yu-Gi-Oh GX, because if I did, Bakura would have done a tap dance at one point and Atticus would have actually been a fantastic singer.**

When I woke up I wondered how I had gotten back to my hotel room. I seriously had no idea. At all. I got up, stretched and stumbled. My head hurt worse than it ever had before. I just got back into bed.

I didn't know what I had become.

I looked at the clock, I was dueling Zane at 3:00, and it was 11:25 right now. I sighed and put my pillow over my head. I didn't want to deal with the real world, and I especially didn't want to deal with Zane. And if Zane were there, it would probably mean that Claire would be in the audience cheering him on. Like she had cheered me on for so long.

Crap.

I with the pillow still on my head I reached for the phone to order breakfast again, but instead I found myself wrapping my fingers around a metal loop with a cold protruding rock on it. A ring. I ripped the pillow off of my head to look at it. It was the ring that I had given to Claire, the same ring that my father had given my mother, and his father had given his mother. There was a note next to it. I looked at Claire's chicken scratch writing, an almost inaudiable note, with pain in my heart.

_Dear Aster,_

_I guess that this belongs to you, so I thought I'd return it. I was hoping to talk to you face to face, but you were out, so I'll just tell you here. I'm so sorry that it ended like this. I hope that one day you'll forgive me and we can be friends. Good luck at your duel tomorrow._

_Love,_

_ Claire_

There were tearstains on the paper.

I enclosed the ring in my hand, holding it tightly, not caring that it probably wasn't good for the ring, and that it was leaving an imprint in my hand. I closed my eyes, and for a moment, the pain was gone.

--

**The room was dark and cold, though there was a fire in the corner. There was a sense of déjà vu and familiarity to it. There was a shadow in the corner, of a young man, by the looks of it. The only thing that was visible to it was its dark brown eyes, which almost appeared to be burning on the inside. A laugh came from it, though it had no mouth.**

**Suddenly the room changed.**

**The lights went on and I recognized the barren walls and small amounts of furniture. It was Sartorius's fortune telling room. I looked to see where the shadow was, but it was gone. In its place was a card, The Magician of Chaos. I tried to pick it up, but I couldn't grasp it. Another hand came out of nowhere and picked it up. I looked up to see Zane standing there with the card, ripping it into shreds. From behind Zane's tall structure was a small crying noise, one that was all too familiar to me. Thorough the years I had never forgotten the sound that Claire made the first time I heard her cry.**

**I ran behind Zane, still ripping the card, to find Claire and to help her, but standing where Claire should have been was Dieter Multov, the guy who lost to Zane in the first round. He was smiling maliciously and also held a card in his hands. He gave a quick chuckle and went in to rip the card.**

**I don't know why, but I pounced on him. And even more curiously, Zane did too. Zane got to him first and Dieter instantly disappeared. I picked up the card he held. Claire's face was on it. The card seemed unharmed, except for a small tear at the corner of it. I was inspecting the damage to the card when I heard a loud noise and my head turned.**

--

The door to my room flew open loudly to reveal Sartorius. I hadn't even realized that I had fallen asleep until he woke me up.

"Aster, your duel starts in twenty minutes." He said, while I stretched, realizing that the ring was still in my hand. "Get up!" I dropped the ring on the nearby table as soon as I could. I could feel its imprint in my hand. Sartorius glared at me.

"I'm up, I'm up!" I said with a yawn as I gripped my head. The hangover would not go away.

"Come on Aster, you have to go. I've got a car outside." I got up and followed Sartorius outside. It was a good thing that I was still wearing my clothes from the night before, because I didn't have time to change, let alone shower.

--

The car ride was fast, but awkward. I was thankful to Sartorius for getting me out of bed, but I still didn't think that we had forgiven each other from the day before.

I knew that I hadn't.

"Tell me about your dream Aster." He said in his eerily calm voice. I looked at him in surprise, how did he know about the dream? "Remember Aster, I know things that the average person does not."

"We were in your fortune telling room…" I said before he cut me off.

"We? Who else was there?" He asked, a concerned look in his eyes. I knew that he was going to take the dream to seriously, and find some prophetic thing about it, but it was good just to tell someone about the dream. It freaked me out.

"I'll get to that. We were in your fortune telling room, and everything was dark. There was a shadow with brown eyes laughing in the corner." It surprised me how easily I remembered everything. It was almost as if the dream was real. "Then the lights flipped on, and the shadow was gone. But there was a card in his place… it was a magician, the Magician of Chaos, I think. And I couldn't pick up the card, even though I tried. But then Zane came in from behind me, picked it up, and began to rip it apart." Sartorius stopped me again.

"How did you know it was Zane, did you have to look, or did you just know?" He asked, his eyes wide with something that looked almost like fear.

"I had to look." I told him. He didn't speak, so I continued with the story. "Then I heard…" I didn't want to say Claire, I don't know why, but I felt embarrassed about knowing how she cried. "Someone crying behind Zane. But instead of being a young girl, like how it sounded, Dieter Multov was standing there. He was smiling and was beginning to rip a card apart, but Zane and I both jumped on him at the same time, then he disappeared." I didn't say the thing about Claire's face being on the card, and the small rip in it. It probably didn't matter. "That's it."

Sartorius looked puzzled about something. "Is that it Aster, did you leave anything out?" I shook my head, knowing that I was lying, but I didn't believe in the destiny stuff as much as I used to, not telling him about Claire's face on the card probably wouldn't mean anything.

The car stopped in front of the dueling arena, and I looked out into the sunshine. My head ached and I looked like crap, but I was going to have to go out there and face everything. I closed my eyes and opened the door.

"Live without your sunlight, love without your heartbeat. I can't live within you."

–David Bowie, Within You (From Labyrinth)


	13. Zane vs Aster

Book Three: Zane

"I had a dream that you were with me and it wasn't my fault. You roll me over, flip me over, just like a somersault. And that doesn't happen to me, I've never been here before. I saw forever in my never, and I stood outside her heaven."

-Justin Furstenfeld, My Never

**--**

I had to say that Aster looked like shit when he came in. His suit was crumpled and dirty. His hair was all over the place and his hand was plastered to his forehead, probably meaning that he had a massive headache. Aster did not seem to be having an easy time, maybe all of the rumors that were going around were true.

I actually felt somewhat bad for him.

He waved good-bye to Sartorius, who had taken a seat in the stands, and got up into the dueling arena.

"Aster Phoenix has arrived, and now the duel can start!" Said Chazz Princeton on the loudspeaker. "Good thing too, because in five minutes he would have been disqualified." This comment earned a seething look from the duelist himself that almost made me laugh… almost. Aster got up onto the arena and started his duel disk. "The two duelists will now exchange their decks."

Aster and I walked towards the middle, or I walked, and Aster stumbled. We took each other's deck, cut it and handed it to the other.

"You okay Phoenix?" I asked him.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He said with a sneer and poison in his voice. "Never been better." His eyes flickered to the stands, and I had a pretty good idea what he was looking for.

"She's not here." I told him. It was a lie, but he should be somewhat focused during this duel at least. He lowered his eyes at me and we walked to our respective sides of the arena. We each drew our five cards and then the duel began.

--

I was supposed to throw the duel. That was the promise that I had made to Claire. I would throw the duel so she could duel Aster in the finals and win him back.

But I couldn't.

The duel started off weak. Aster obviously had a hangover from the night before and was not dueling his best. He played weak monsters and useless Spell and Trap Cards. I went easy on him so he could catch up. But as the duel went on and Aster woke up more, he got more aggressive. He started summoning powerful monsters and playing hard. I couldn't go easy on him any longer. After he made a powerful combination that he probably thought would be my defeat, he began to talk.

"So Zane, are you enjoying being beaten?" He asked with a smug grin on his face. Though no one in the audience could hear what he said, they all shifted uncomfortably in their seats due to the fact that they all probably knew what the chatter was along the lines of.

"Of course not Aster." I said as I placed a monster down in defense mode and placed two cards face down.

"Then you're not going to enjoy this duel _Zane_." He had a flash of red in his eyes and he smiled manically. "But then again, do you think that I enjoyed what you did to me?" He asked, the smile gone.

"Of course not Aster." I said in response, not wanting to further provoke him.

Claire, who was sitting behind Aster a few rows back, wearing dark clothes and a hat, to hopefully disguise herself, looked like she had tears in her eyes. She didn't want to hear Aster talk like that, and I knew it.

"Zane, you're now going to get what's coming to you!" He said as he had his Dogma attack my facedown card.

"Hey Aster." I said slowly, angry that he was being so… evil. "Don't you think that I feel slightly bad? I acted on an impulse Aster. If you had been in my position I know that you would have too. Any man would have. You didn't have to ruin not only your life, but someone you loved's as well because someone was acting stupid." I could see that Aster had momentarily stopped breathing. The duel paused.

After a minute of no movement and silence from both duelists Aster spoke.

"Loved?" He said softly, his eyes unfocused and large.

He was miserable, and so was she. As much as I hated seeing them together, as much as I hated being match-maker, as much as I wished that it would be me that she chose in the end, not him, I knew that I could never truly be happy unless they were together again.

"Do you seriously believe that anyone would think that you love her anymore? Aster, look at yourself. If you loved her, you would know how miserable she is right now." I was angry now. Why would I do anything to help this guy? "I know how miserable she is."

Aster sneered at me and finished his turn.

It was my turn again. And I knew what I had to do.

I summoned my Cyber End Dragon with my Power Bond and attacked his Dogma.

The duel was over.

I won.

--

I managed to catch up to Claire as she left the dueling arena. She had tears running down her face, but was silent.

"Why'd you win?" She asked, knowing that it was me, even though she never looked. I really hated it when she did that.

"I couldn't lose to him." I told her simply, hoping that she'd understand. Having ruined her life, she had been pretty kind to me. We were both alone now, but we were alone together. Instead of shunning me, we had actually formed a friendship of necessity. I needed her, and she needed someone. I loved her, I probably always would, but I understood her more now, and I understood that she would never be happy with anyone else but Aster.

"Zane." Claire said as she actually turned to face me. "You don't get it. I need him like I need air. It's wrong and it shouldn't be like that, but it is. I thought I could trust you, you were so… good the past few days. But if this title is more important, fine. I'll see you at the finals." She turned around and began to walk away, leaving me standing at the same place yet again.

This happened far to often for my comfort.

I guess that she didn't get that I needed _her_ more than I needed air.

**Sorry for the delay, but I've been uber-busy and now I'm sick! YAY! I don't have anything clever or funny or even self-deprecating here. Sorry. Review if you want. Or don't. I'm too tired to care.**


	14. Toon

**One word my friends: Plot. Need I say more?**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh or Yu-Gi-Oh GX, because if I did, there would be a lot more scenes of Zane and Bakura in the shower.**

The next few days passed by agonizingly slowly. Claire was angry with me. There was more talk of Aster's heavy drinking. And all three of us were miserable. Alexis left the hotel to stay with some friends outside of the city. She wasn't going to sit around here if she wasn't with someone. When Atticus lost it was only a matter of time before she would find no reason to stay. She'd probably be back for the finals, she had never missed a good duel, even if it was between two people that she loathed. I had made it pretty clear that I was done with her. It was a relief to stop lying to her, but I did wish that it had ended better. I was hoping that I wouldn't lose Alexis and Atticus as friends, but I did. It didn't seem like anyone was to pleased with me right now, I screwed up pretty bad.

A few days later Claire dueled Jaden to get to the finals. It was no competition. Claire had a new desire to win, a new drive. She fought hard, sparing nothing. She seemed to have lost her whimsicalness while she dueled. It was all or nothing for her. I guess that since I had betrayed her and she no longer had Aster she had nothing to lose.

She had her Ocean Dragon Lord Neo-Dadelous attack Jaden directly to win.

He fell over.

She just walked away.

--

The night before the final duel I got a phone call.

"Is this Zane Truesdale?" An unfamiliar voice asked me. I looked at the number quickly, it was private.

"Yes." I said, waiting for the stranger to explain himself.

"I don't have time to explain myself." The stranger said as I rolled my eyes. I tried to figure out who he was. He had a slight accent, German or something Northern European. I knew I had heard someone speak like that before, but I couldn't place who it was in my mind. "But you need to find your dueling opponent, Claire Rodgers. Don't let her see you, but make sure that she doesn't get out of your sight. If you see anything strange find a way to get her out of there. She's just leaving the hotel. She can be saved." Click.

I stared at the phone for a moment.

What. The. Fuck.

How come all these plots happened at this tournaments? Why can't there just be one time where we can all enjoy a tournament without the death and doom of the world on our hands? Why were duelists so _unlucky_?

Then, despite my better judgment, I got on an elevator to follow Claire. _She can be saved_. That's what the person told me. But saved from what? Then I remembered the phone call that she made after that first duel, and her face after I threatened to tell Aster about it.

She probably had to be saved from that, whatever it was.

I grew impatient in the elevator. If Claire was just leaving the hotel when the stranger called, then she must have been outside already. I got off the elevator, and to my relief Claire was signing an autograph for a tall blonde boy. I stood far enough away that I could hear their conversation, but so Claire couldn't see me. I guess it was lucky that the lobby of the hotel was pretty crowded.

"… great duelist. I really hope that you win the finals." Said the blonde boy, whose German accent was playing out as he spoke. The boy on the phone! I thought. He must be stalling her so I could come.

"Thanks." Claire said with a somewhat forced smile.

"Please," the boy said with a brilliant smile. "come with me out to dinner. I would love to get a few tips. Besides, lately it looks as if you could use some cheering up." Claire smiled, and looked as if she were about to say no, but her eyes caught sight of Aster walking determinedly across the lobby, and her expression exchanged momentarily. She then looked back at the blonde boy and smiled.

"Sure. That would be great. What was your name again?" The blonde held out his arm for Claire, which caused her to giggle, but she closed hers around it and they began to move forward.

"You can call me Toon Multie." Claire smiled and formally introduced herself while Toon nodded and smiled in return. I followed them outside. I knew that Toon wanted me there, because he made sure to look me in the eyes as they walked out.

The two of them smiled and chatted down the street. They ended up in a little Italian mom and pop joint, it wasn't romantic or anything. They sat at a table with a family of four, a mom, dad, an eight year-old boy and a bored looking tween girl and an old married couple celebrating an anniversary. I waited ten minutes before walking in, hoping that Claire wouldn't notice and I'd be seated far away from them. But. it was just my luck that there was one seat left at their table.

--

Claire was actually laughing when I was seated. I hadn't seen her laugh in a long, long time. She was so engrossed in her conversation with Toon that she didn't notice when I sat down. I guessed that it was a good sign. Hopefully this Toon guy could keep her entertained for a while, it certainly made me happy to see her enjoying herself.

Even if it was with another man.

The waitress came around to take our orders. The old married couple ordered without looking at the menu. They apparently ordered the same thing every time the came here because it was what they were eating when he asked her to marry him. How sweet. I felt sick. Claire and Toon had spent so much time laughing that neither of them really looked at the menu. They both ordered the first thing on it, mushroom ravioli, and both laughed because they found that neither of them actually liked the dish. The family all ordered different things, the mom ordered a salad, she was apparently watching her weight, with a glass of wine, the dad ordered a steak, the son tried to order the same thing as his dad, but was forced to order off of the kids menu and the tween ordered a plate of spaghetti, but she spent so long asking questions and making special requests that it was almost a full five minutes before I had to order.

The waitress, Melissa, according to her name tag, gave me an once-over and smiled in a flirtatious way.

"Can I get you something… _special_ hon?" she asked me, chewing the end of her pen in the corner of her mouth, probably trying to be seductive, but only looking stupid.

"I'll have a salad, house dressing on the side." I said as quickly as possible, while handing her the menu.

She pouted slightly, but regained her composure. "Would you like something to… _drink_?" She asked me with a wink.

I didn't change my expression as I answered her question by pointing to my glass of water, already at the table. She gave a small huff and walked away.

I contented myself by looking at the walls of the restaurant. They were hand-painted murals of the Italian countryside. They were beautiful. Detailed and realistic, it was almost as if you were standing in a field next to the scene, not in a crappy restaurant in Domino City.

While I was lost in the artwork I heard my name being said a few seats away.

"ZANE TRUESDALE?!" The tween girl shouted in an annoyingly high-pitched voice. It immediately snapped me out of my trance. "OH MI GOD! IT IS YOU!" She screamed as she started to pull herself onto the table to get a closer look. "Ma! Get out your phone. I want a picture!" While being prodded around by the annoying child, Victoria, I learned her name was, I managed to get a look at Claire, who was fuming with rage. Victoria stuck a notebook in my face and ordered me to sign it. I unwillingly obliged.

_**Go Away.**_

_**-Zane Truesdale**_

The formerly excited girl read over my signature and got tears in her eyes. She showed her notebook to her parents in order to get them to do something about my terrible behavior. They both glared at me, but they knew that their daughter was the one who was really acting rudely, so they stayed silent. From behind me I felt a tap on my shoulder.

"_Zane_." Claire said, a flash of red going across her eyes. "Could we have a little chat outside?" I nodded and got up out of my seat. As I walked out I saw Toon chuckling to himself. The bastard.

When we got outside Claire turned on me.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" She yelled me.

"Having dinner." I told her without changing the expression on my face. I was just lucky that I had been mastering my poker face since I was a child, Claire was really terrifying at the moment.

"It's not bad enough that you've ruined everything for me, but now you're stalking me too?! What's your problem Zane?!" She was red with anger. At least it was better than seeing her cry like usual.

"It doesn't seem like I've ruined everything, you seemed to be having fun with that guy in there." I didn't say it in an accusatory tone, but she took it like I did.

"Toon is in a very committed relationship. He isn't looking for that and neither am I. He just wanted to make me feel better, which is a very sweet thing to do for a complete stranger. Not that you would know what a sweet thing to do is!" I stood silent for a moment as Claire regained her breath. I was about to say something in response to her when Toon walked outside.

The closer I looked at him and heard him speak, I knew that he was the one who had been on the phone earlier.

"Claire." He said sweetly. "Come back inside. And we should invite Zane to eat with us. The more the merrier!"

"No thank you." I told him, again with an unchanging expression. "You see, I'm already at the same table as you two, but you didn't seem to notice me. But I don't mind. I wanted to eat alone." Claire rolled her eyes and beckoned for Toon to follow her inside. He stuck his finger up, telling her to wait a minute.

"Claire," he said still looking at me. "Go back inside, I'm going to have a word with Zane." Claire shrugged and went back inside while Toon took me over away from the door.

"What's this all about?" I asked him.

"We don't have much time. I've got her covered until we reach the hotel again tonight. Aster Phoenix will be watching her tomorrow morning, even though I think that she'd be safe before the duel. But tonight, you _have_ to find a way to stay near her, preferably inside her room."

I was getting irritated. "Excuse me, but WHAT is this about?"

Toon sighed and shook his head.

"Alas Zane, not even I know. All I know is that my brother and father are planning something, and it involves Claire. I know they've been tricking her thus far, saying things about her father's death and pinning it on her, even when it's not true. But my father… he's very persuasive."

"Who is your father?" I asked while trying to register all this information.

"My father is Ivo Multov. And you would probably want to know who I am. My name is Anton Multov." It took me a minute to register the name… Multov… Multov…

"Wait, do you mean that Dieter is your brother?" Anton nodded his head solemnly.

"Yes. I regret to say that yes, Dieter is my brother. And yes, he is one of the ones planning to hurt Claire." I was in shock. Dieter didn't seem like the type, but when did they ever?

"And why should I trust you?" I asked him. Anton seemed to think for a minute, unsure of what to say.

"I guess you shouldn't. I've done nothing to prove anything. But I do want to keep Claire safe. It is… unfair for her to die for whatever my family is planning. I refuse to let her fall victim. My family… is not good. I guess. And I want to be the one to change that." I stared at Anton for a moment. He didn't appear to be lying. But why would someone do that? It was unusual for someone to be a decently good person nowadays. Especially in the flifth hole of Domino City.

"But why me?" I asked. "You realize that Claire hates me, right?"

"I could only tell a few about the plans of my family. I chose you because you love her. Plain and simple as that. Aster, on the other hand, came to me. His physic friend apparently saw this coming, before I did even. He also loves her and wants to protect her. I told one other of the plans, and when the time comes he may be able to help. But until then, he wished to remain anonymous. And then there's me, the one who just wanted to protect the innocent." He looked at me with a studied eye. "And that is all I have to say. I must go back to my date now."

He went back inside before I could thank him.

**Well here it is! The plot! YAY! Isn't it exciting? And suspenseful? Woo-hoo! It only took fourteen freaking chapters!**

**Aster- Yeah it's about time.**

**Me- Shut up, I try my best.**

**Zane- Maybe you should get ready for a life as a hobo.**

**Me- Review before I end up killing one of these two.**

**Me- And I'm sorry that I had nothing clever to say here today.**


	15. Snake Eyes

**A great portion of this chapter is mush. Fluffy, fluffy mush with a little bit of plot mixed in. Part of me vomited when I wrote this and the other part started sobbing. So I was a sobbing, vomiting fool. Wow. That's a really strange mental image… You know, the usual. Read, relax, review. Have a great day! **

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh or Yu-Gi-Oh GX because if I did I would have something interesting to say here.**

I kept to myself the rest of the meal. I ate, paid and left. But I was always close to Claire. Anton managed to convince her to go out dancing after dinner, which I forlornly followed them to. We ended up at a place called the "Snake Eyes". How appropriate for Domino City.

They walked inside and I waited a half hour before going inside myself. The room was bright and flashing. There was a black and white checked dance floor in the middle of the room with color changing lights all over. There was a bar and some booths on one side of the dance floor with a few more booths on the other side. There seemed to be a large crowd of people there, but the vast majority of them were on the dance floor, making it easy for me to slip into a vacant booth. I looked around to find Claire and Anton, but my eyes only saw the other people there.

Aster was sitting at the bar arguing with the bartender about something.

Alexis was talking to Chazz in a booth on the other side of the dance floor. I knew it would only be a matter of time before he made his move.

Jesse and Jaden were sitting a few booths away from them… kissing. I guessed that the article was true, however disturbing it was.

A few other people who I vaguely recognized were there as well. It was a pretty good place to hide, if that was your goal, it seemed that half the population of Domino City was on the dance floor.

I finally found Claire and Anton on the dance floor. Claire was having a great time, she was smiling and looked happy. Anton however, was too busy trying to maneuver Claire around to make sure that she didn't see Aster, Alexis or me. It was quite amusing actually. Claire kept tripping over Anton and they would both apologize to each other profusely, just to trip over each other again as they spoke.

If the situation weren't so strange, I might have laughed.

The door to the club opened admitting more people. The place was getting pretty crowded. It was getting harder and harder to keep my eyes focused on Claire, I found that there was too much action around. The next thing I knew someone was screaming and someone was running out of the doors to the club. I immediately got up and ran into the crowd to find Claire. It only took me a moment. The rest of the crowd was circled around her, she was lying on the floor unconscious. Anton was sitting next to her, trying to wake her up.

I pushed through the crowd and kneeled down next to her.

"What happened?" I asked Anton.

"They came in. Tried to grab something. She passed out." He said. "We have to get her back to the hotel." Just then Aster pushed through the crowd.

"What happened?" He asked with a look of sheer terror in his eyes.

"No time to explain Aster." Anton said, "We have to get her to the hotel." Anton picked her up, bridal style, causing more than a bit of jealousy from the two other men around him and began to walk out of the door. We were about to leave when Alexis got in our way.

"What happened?" She asked, sounding redundant after Phoenix and I. For the first time, Anton didn't immediately answer. I looked over at him to see what was the hold-up, but he was just staring at Alexis. His eyes were wide and there was something full to them that hadn't been there before.

"No time to explain." Aster said. "We have to go." He pushed Anton out the door and we began to walk. Anton was still taciturn.

We walked in silence for a few minutes, then Claire began to stir. It started out with a few moans and groans, but then words came out.

"Aster." She said softly. I looked at Aster, who became ghost white. Claire seemed to be sleep talking, and her eyes weren't open. But instead of taking her hand or comforting her, Aster continued walking, his face with the same expression.

Anton and I looked at each other, not really knowing what to do.

"Do you want to carry her?" Anton asked him. Aster nearly shook his head 'no', but at the last minute nodded, still silent. Anton passed Claire's sleeping body into Aster's arms. He stood still for a moment, just staring at her face. Then we began to move again, still in silence.

It felt almost like a funeral or a wake, there was an awkward air around the four of us, and there seemed to be something that was begging us to speak, but none of us uttered a syllable.

Anton and I looked over at Claire and Aster every once in awhile, just to make sure that they were okay, but Aster's gaze didn't move. He just stared at her face. I was surprised that he didn't walk into a wall or something. It was slightly awkward, it felt as if we were intruding on something so special and private. Even loving her as I did, I knew that they were meant to be together. The way that he looked at her face, like it was the most beautiful thing in the world, like there was nothing else in the world even. It was heart wrenching. Even for someone who didn't have a heart, like me.

When we got back to the hotel Aster called Anton over.

"Here, take her." He said. "I'm going back out." Anton nodded and held his arms out to take her, but we all paused. Claire was stirring again.

"Aster?" She asked, her eyes not open, but not closed. Aster stood silent for a moment, his eyes filled with surprise and agony.

"Yes?" He asked quietly, he closed his eyes, probably wanting to save the moment.

"I love you." Claire said softly as she drifted back into oblivion.

"I love you too." He said almost inaudibly. I turned away, I couldn't look at it. A few moments later Claire was in Anton's arms once again and Aster was gone. Anton giggled and I looked at him as if he were insane. He looked at me and explained.

"It's her Space Mambo. It's dancing around, he's very excited. He's been waiting for that for a long time. He wants Aster to come back, he doesn't really remember the last time she was that happy. But he is a little sad that she'll forget the moment come morning." Anton laughed again and nodded at what I guessed was the Space Mambo in the air. "Come on, let's get her into her room. I'm going to stay with her tonight. Go get some sleep, it looks like you could use some. I will see you at the duel tomorrow." Anton got into an elevator and left.

I knew what I should do.

I knew what I wanted to do.

I guess I knew a lot of things.

But I did not know that someone was standing behind me.

The person grabbed my arms with one of their hands and shoved me against a wall so I couldn't see who it was.

"You will win the duel tomorrow." Said a voice in my ear. It was almost a hissing noise, but I understood it perfectly. "And once you are done with the duel, you will invite Claire to come with you to a secret place, which is the warehouses on the south side of the dock. Once she is there, run as fast as you can. That is it." The person bashed my head into the wall, causing me to momentarily lose consciousness. But it was long enough that they were out the door by the time I woke up.

I looked around to see what had happened to the receptionists and other people, but I was the only person in the lobby. I quickly got into an elevator and headed towards Claire's room to find Anton.

I had no idea what all that was about, but I was pretty sure it wasn't good.

**I'd really like to give props to the song Yellow by Coldplay. Without that song this chapter would not have existed. I had that song on repeat for like, three hours while I wrote this. (Yes, I write excrutiatingly slow). So… go download it. It's a great song. I love it.**


	16. A Cup Of Sugar

**Sorry about the delay with this chapter. I've been really busy lately. High school is not very fun. And I am sorry to anyone who understands the German in this chapter, I'm afraid that I just typed all the words that I wanted Anton to say into Babelfish and it might be a completely atrocious translation.**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh or Yu-Gi-Oh GX, because if I did they would have picked a different name for Bonaparte. That man probably makes Napoleon roll around in his grave.**

I got to Claire's door and knocked, expecting Anton to answer it and Claire to still be asleep.

She wasn't.

"What are you doing here?!" She asked me with anger in her eyes again. I stood silent for a moment, trying to retain my composure. I just had to find a way out of this.

"I was just… looking for a cup of sugar." It surprised even me that I could say that with a straight face.

"A CUP OF FREAKING SUGAR?!" Claire asked me loudly, and then quieted down with the realization that there were people sleeping in the adjacent rooms. "I know what you're up to Zane Truesdale, you can't fool me. Just like you hit me in the head, you're trying to keep me up so I'll lose the duel tomorrow. Well Zane, don't think I'm that stupid. Now leave!" Claire slammed the door in my face and I staggered back a few steps. It wasn't until then until I noticed the note that was attached next to the door.

_Zane or Aster,_

_Claire is awake, and will probably not be in the best of moods. I will be in Zane's room. I stole his key out of his pocket when he was not looking (sorry Zane). If you need me I will probably be found there. If I am missing, do not come looking for me. It will be too dangerous. –Anton_

I swore as I read the note. Anton was such a strange person. I found it to be increasingly difficult to trust him, and the fact that his brother was part of this problem didn't help that any.

I went back into the elevator and got to my floor. After checking my pockets to make sure that I really did not have a key I knocked on the door. Anton answered it almost immediately.

"Hello there! Now we may party!" He gestured to the figure standing towards the back of the room, Aster.

"Phoenix." I said with a nod.

"Truesdale." He said with a slight sneer. Anton rolled his eyes and gestured me over to the couch.

"Tell me Zane, what did Dieter tell you to do?" He asked, all seriousness. I had no idea what he meant.

"What are you talking about?" I asked in all seriousness. I could see Aster rolling his eyes from where he was standing, it took all of my self-control not to go over there and strangle him.

"You were told to do something by someone in the lobby of the hotel, no?" He asked.

"Yes I was." I said curiously. Had it been Dieter who had done that?

"Yes, well, then it was my brother." He paused for a moment in thought. "What did he tell you to do?" I sighed. I didn't see what this was going to do.

"He told me that I _am_ going to win the duel and that I _am_ going to lead Claire to the docks afterward." Anton nodded his head solemnly. I surprised myself by the next thing I said. "But I was planning on doing that anyway, so why is it such a big deal?" It wasn't until that moment until I realized that I _was_ going to do that, even before Dieter told me to. I hadn't really formulated it, but I was always planning on it. Anton stared at me for a moment, and then broke into German.

"Gottfluch Sie Dieter. Warum Muss Sie dies uns? antut! Ich hoffe, dass Sie mit Maden in der Hölle verrotten! Bumsen Sie es! Und bumsen Sie Sie!" Anton said quickly, running out of breath by the end. Aster and I looked at each other confused. "Zane." He said as he ran up to me and put his hands on my shoulders. "You must not do that. If you do then Claire will surely die." I rolled my eyes at such a ludicrous idea. Going to the docks wouldn't kill anyone. Anton shook my shoulders harshly and continued to talk. "Zane, if you care about her at all, with any speck of love in your heart, you will _not_ take her to the docks after the duel tomorrow, win or lose. Do you hear me?!" His accent and volume seemed to grow as he continued to speak. I nodded my head yes.

If it really meant that much that I wouldn't take her, I wouldn't. But for some reason the sound of taking Claire to the docks after the duel tomorrow seemed more appealing and amazing than any other idea had sounded in my entire life.

Because I knew that if I did then Claire would tell me she loved me.

It was obvious.

"What are you thinking of?" Anton's voice said, concerned. "What has he promised you? Tell me the truth, for I know that you are thinking of his promise."

"Promise?" Aster asked, breaking out little chat.

"Dieter has a gift. He cannot force someone to do something, per se, but he can convince them by taking their wildest fantasies, wants and dreams and promising them to someone if they do what he wants them to. All he has to do is say what he wants them to do, and then the vision goes into their head. It was cute when we were small and he wanted me to go get him a bar of chocolate, but using it in a situation like this…" Anton paused briefly. "Verdammen Sie Sie Dieter!" He said in a voice that would make even Seto Kaiba shake in his boots. He turned back to Aster after he caught his breath. "Zane was obviously thinking of Dieter's promise to him. So tell us Zane, what do you want?" Aster and Anton's eyes were both on me. I knew that there was no way I could lie about this, even if Aster killed me.

"I thought that if I took Claire to the docks, then she would…" I paused and looked at Aster's face, dark and filled with rage and hatred. I knew that if I said it he would attack me, but the information might be important. "She would say she loves me." I said simply. I braced myself for the rage that would probably come down upon me.

Aster's face relaxed.

"Good." Aster said to my sheer and utter surprise, then turned to Anton. "We know what he said to Zane now, but what did he tell Claire? And what does that have to do with what he told me?"

"Well," Anton began. "He obviously needs Claire to get to the docks. He needed to take precautions to make sure that no matter what she would get there. That's why he told the both of you about that. Now why he would tell you to not talk to Zane, I'm not sure. It could be that he doesn't want us to formulate plans. But tell me Aster, how did you overcome the request."

"It was easy." He said with a cynical smile. "I knew that no matter what I did, the dream wouldn't have really come true, and it especially wouldn't come true if I ignored Zane."

Anton nodded his head and began to pace.

"You have very good self-control Aster. You are a very clever man."

"Thank you." Aster said with a proud smile.

"Aster, I must talk to you more." Anton said with a frown. He turned to me. "Zane go get some sleep. We shall talk more tomorrow." Anton then gestured to my bedroom, which I more than willingly went into. No matter how fucked-up things were, I was still tired and I was still having the duel of my life tomorrow.

**Yay! Just try to diss the plot…**

**Aster- Your plot is the most stupid thing that has ever been.**

**Zane- Yeah, how the hell did you get the idea for Dieter's… persuasiveness.**

**Me- … I dunno.**

**Aster- This plot sucks.**

**Me- Well… you suck too!**

**Zane- Ow. That hurt slightly… wait no, it didn't.**

**Me- I'm going to go cry now.**


	17. White Magical Hat

**Okay, there is some more poorly translated German in this chapter. Yet again, I'm sorry for those people who actually speak the language and are offended by the content or the translation of the words. And a special thanks to ****KisunaFuji for the generous offer to help out with my translations. **

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh or Yu-Gi-Oh GX, because if I did I would have made the video games not suck.**

I slept better than I had in weeks, months, perhaps even years. There was a warmth that had settled over me, I didn't know why or how it got there, but I was happy that it was. I stretched and walked into the main apartment of my hotel room. On the table there was a note. I picked it up and began to read it.

_Zane,_

_Aster and I are checking something out. We'll see you at your duel. Good luck._

_-Anton_

I put the note back on the table and stretched. I had about two hours before my duel at six o'clock. I had slept for quite some time, but I never knew that sleeping could be quite so great. I knew that I had dreamt, but I didn't remember what. There were just swirling colors and a… dagger. I wasn't quite sure what the dagger was, but it was only a dream.

It meant nothing.

As I got into the shower I remembered more of the dream. The swirling colors, they were all grey. And the dagger was in someone's hand. I closed my eyes and tried to recall more of it.

**The docks smelled like rotten fish. There were hundreds of cardboard boxes lying around. It was such a bleak place, not exactly the place one would really want to go to after winning the duel of their life. She kept asking where I was taking her, but I refused to tell her. I wanted it to be a surprise. I wasn't sure what the actual surprise was, but it must be very good. I lead her into an abandoned warehouse at the far end. We were alone. I thought she would say the words. I was hoping for it. Praying for it. This moment had played through my mind since the moment I had met her. My heart was racing, which was a bad thing due to my condition. **

**But she didn't. My heart sank. The words I had longed for all this time never came from her lips. Instead he walked up behind her with a dagger. He plunged it into her. It happened so fast that I couldn't stop it from happening. In a few short seconds she was lying on the floor in a pool of blood. I was paralyzed. As much as I would like to kill the man with the dagger, I cannot. I can only stare at her, unmoving in the shimmering waves of her blood, still coming out through her back. I can almost hear her whispering something, so quiet and inaudible that I couldn't understand it.**

**The other two came, but it was too late. She had stopped breathing. The one falls on top of her motionless body, tears streaming down his face. He is soon completely drenched in the girl's blood. After a minute he looks up at me with accusatory eyes. He wants to know why I didn't stop it, why I didn't do something. I cannot answer him, for I do not know the answer myself. The other goes to the one with the knife and tries to wrestle it away from him.**

**He is stabbed as well.**

**The one with the knife puts it into a gold pot. Shaking the blood off of it. There's a bright flash of white and…**

I could barely breathe.

I did not know how I could have forgotten something like that. I tried to conjure the images back up in my mind, but they seemed to be lost forever, only distant memories once again. My mind turned off. My body slumped against the wall of the shower and I just sat there paralyzed… like I had been in the dream.

I knew I couldn't take Claire to the warehouses now.

--

Despite the traumatizing event in the shower I was able to get ready for my duel on time.

And I had to say I was pretty excited.

I had only seen Claire duel a few times, and both times they were totally different. In one she relied on her Magic and Trap cards to do the talking, and the other she used pure, brute strength. It almost seemed like she dueled based on her emotions. When she was happy she was kind and respectful to her opponent. When she was angry she used force and cruelty. I was curious to see what she would do today.

--

When I got to the duel arena I checked in with Anton, who was sitting quite a ways from Aster, trying to make sure Claire didn't suspect anything. I told him everything about the dream I had.

"And you are sure that it was Claire. Not somebody else?" He asked me.

"I'm sure."

"And the light's color was white?"

"Yes." His questions confused me. I didn't see how the color of the light would affect anything. If I went to the docks, Claire would die. It was just that simple.

"Dieses ist gerade bumsen fantastisch. Verdammen Sie meinen Bruder zur Hölle. Warum Muss er dies? tut! Ein was für verdammt verzögertes Arschloch! Gott, warum musste es sie sein? Sie aus allen Leuten heraus? Und warum diese zwei tun Sie, müssen andere Douchebeutel in der verdammt Liebe mit ihr so sein?! Und warum sie sogar Angelegenheit mich antut! Bumsen Sie die Welt, ich möchten weg erhalten!" I had no idea what Anton was saying, but I guessed that it was not all that kind. Anton regained his composure, but took a minute to breathe.

Then, unexpectedly, he began to laugh.

"What is it?" I asked, utterly confused at how he could find the death of an innocent person so funny.

"It's the Space Mambo." He said, sniggering. "It's extremely hyper and is annoying the living scheiße out of Claire. It just wants to go 'say hi to Aster'." He put quotation marks around the words. "She's telling it no, but it won't shut up. It swears that it only just wants to say hi and… comment about the weather!" Anton laughed uncontrollably for a moment. I guess I had to just trust him on this subject, I truly had no idea that a floating alien fish could be so funny. "You should hear it! It is hilarious!" He doubled over with laughter as I looked over at my opponent.

She looked so vulnerable. If only she knew what would happen if I let my self-control go. The picture that Dieter had placed in my head was still there. If I let myself think too much about it… her saying those words… she would inevitably end up dead. But right now, talking quietly to her invisible monster friend, she just looked so beautiful. And more than anything I wanted to hear those words from her.

"Don't think about it Zane. It just makes the pain hurt worse." Anton said, breaking me away from my daze.

"What duel spirit do you see?" I asked him, trying to distract myself from her and trying to distract Anton from the Space Mambo.

"The White Magical Hat." He said, looking over his shoulder. "He's been my companion for years. A father figure to me. He is why I came to help. He convinced me that it was the right thing to do." He smiled behind his shoulder. "Well Zane, it is about time you get up there. You do not want to be late for your duel."

"I guess I don't." I said with some reluctance. The truth was, I wanted to be more than late for my duel. I did not want to duel at all. I was conflicted. I knew that if I won, I would take her to the warehouses, and I knew that if I lost, I would never be taken seriously as a professional ever again.

I was very conflicted.

Then I saw Dieter sitting in the back of the crowd, and I knew what I would do.

I would make it a draw.

**Phew. I think that's the last of my terrible language skills. I know, all may rejoice. Shana tova for any Jews out there and I'll see you at Yom Kipper services tonight!**


	18. My Never

**Ha, sorry about the long wait for the chapter, I've been super busy with other things lately and… yeah. It's so sad that life interferes with my fanfiction writing. Sigh. So… who else is **_**madly**_** in love with Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's? I know I am! And by the way, sorry about the short chapter and the bad duel. I'm slightly too lazy to go get the cards' effects and write them here, but I take no credit for these cards, they all belong to the creator of Yu-Gi-Oh, ****Kazuki Takahashi. Thanks for reading! Please review, they make me put up the chapters quicker.**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, Yu-Gi-Oh GX or Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's, because if I did Yusei and Jack would have come in a WHOLE lot sooner.**

We drew our first cards.

And our second.

And our third.

We didn't have a witty banter going like what happened in most duels; Claire was silent. Something seemed wrong, very wrong. She was doing fine for an amateur duelist, or a kid in school, but not for a final duel of such an esteemed competition. Claire seemed to be unfocused and distracted. After a few simple moves I was in the lead. I looked around the crowd, to see if there was anything bothering her there. I knew that Aster would intimidate her. Having the person you loved (and loathed) more than anything else in the entire world watching you duel would have been a difficult situation. But she had dueled with him there before. Her famous friends were there, cheering her on. I could even make out the King of Games in a bad disguise (nothing could cover up that hair) himself sitting by his friends, all holding up posters for Claire.

A few more turns went by. I was able to summon my Cyber-End Dragon and take out another chunk of her life points.

"Are you okay?" I asked her after she made a particularly amateur-like move that made her lose more than a few more life points.

"Yes." She said softly. I could swear that I saw her wipe a tear from her eye.

"Claire, if you're in trouble, if you need help, I'll call of the duel." Claire got an angry look in her eyes and I instantly regretted saying that.

"I don't need any help!" She said with a hiss. "Especially from you! Now keep dueling!" I shook my head and drew my next card. She had managed to evade a few attacks from my Cyber-End Dragon, but she wouldn't last long like this. I destroyed her defensive monster and ended my turn even though I had a Magic Card that could have wiped out the last of her lifepoints.

Claire drew and played a field spell, A Legendary Ocean, one of the base cards of her deck. She then played Amphibious Bugroth MK-3 and due to its special effect, attacked my life points directly. That was good, our life points were becoming more even now. She ended her turn with a facedown and Swords of Revealing Light, meaning that I couldn't attack for three turns.

I had three turns to turn the duel in Claire's direction. I played a weaker monster, hoping that she had something in her hand that could counter it, and ended my turn. On Claire's turn she played her Space Mambo, which with A Legendary Ocean's help, easily defeated my weaker monster. I lost more life points. Good. Then she had her Bugroth attack me again. Even more life points lost. Now if I could just find a way to get her down to a few life points while still keeping my own. I played a monster in defense mode and ended my turn.

Claire sacrificed a her Bugroth to summon her more powerful Mobius The Frost Monarch. With its special effect she destroyed both of my facedown cards on the field. I knew that it probably would have been a smarter idea for her to sacrifice her Mambo, but she would never do that. She had never once in this entire competition sacrificed her Space Mambo, and if I had to guess, I would probably say that she had never once sacrificed her Mambo in her entire life. Being her duel spirit, she had a special connection to it. I knew that it pained her when her Space Mambo was hurt. She was also happy when her Mambo was happy, which is probably why she had it attack Alexis directly in their duel, rather than her Dragon. She ordered her Monarch attack my face down monster, which was instantly destroyed, and ended her turn.

This game of cat and mouse went on for another turn. But when Claire's Swords of Revealing Light lost its effect I had to attack, it would have looked strange if I didn't. I destroyed her Monarch with my Cyber-End Dragon and she took some more damage. It pained me to do it, but I did. Every time I took some of her life points it felt like I was losing part of my soul with them. But if I was going to resist the temptation to take her away after the duel, I would have to hurt her a few more times.

After a few turns Claire was in bad shape. She only had 200 life points left whereas I had 1200 and her prospects were looking bleak when I had my most powerful monster on the field. I wasn't sure how I could not win this duel without making it look like I was trying to lose. She had her Space Mambo, which I had spared, knowing that Claire would really lose all hope if I destroyed her favorite monster, and another facedown monster in defense mode. Claire could easily sacrifice her two monsters to summon a powerful monster, but she didn't have much of a chance. Unless she had either of her Dragon Lords in her hand, she probably wouldn't last another three turns. None of the monsters in her deck had enough attack points to counter my Dragon. Unless she used her Dragon Lord's effects, she couldn't win. She drew, and an expression of almost pain went across her face.

"I sacrifice my Space Mambo," She said, her eyes downcast. I was taken in surprise. She had never once sacrificed her Mambo. I looked at Aster on the sidelines. His eyes were big with surprise… and worry. He knew Claire well enough that she would never sacrifice her favorite monster for just anything. "To summon my Destiny Hero-Dasher."

Aster popped out of his seat.

The crowd was silent.

So was I.

--

"And I can only dream of you in sleep, and I'll never see sunlight again. I can try and be with you but somehow I'll just end up losing a friend and I can only reach for you, relate to you, I'm losing my friend. Where did she go? Where…"

-Justin Furstenfeld, My Never


	19. The Scientist

Book Four: Aster

"Come up to meet ya, tell you I'm sorry. You don't know how lovely you are. I had to find you, tell you I need ya and tell you I set you apart."

-Coldplay, The Scientist

--

The duel was going so badly for her. I was sure that she could beat Zane; she was an amazing duelist. But she just wasn't flowing today; she was letting her emotions get in the way of her dueling, which is never a good thing. She needed one of her Ocean Dragon Lords, or she was going to lose, there was no question about it.

She drew on her next turn and she had a look of pain on her face, I guessed that she probably didn't get the card she needed. After a moment she looked up and continued the duel.

Her next words were forced and choked "I sacrifice my Space Mambo," she said and the words shocked me. Claire would never sacrifice her Space Mambo. She had told me that her Space Mambo was the one thing that she could always count on, her only friend who has _always_ been there for her, even when she had no one else. She tended to cry if her opponent in a duel destroyed it. Claire would never inflict pain on it unless it was the most necessary thing in the world. But what card did she have in her deck that could save her now? Especially with only one sacrifice? It couldn't have been either of her dragons and I knew her deck too well to know that she had a card with one sacrifice to help her. "To summon my Destiny Hero-Dasher."

My world stopped once again.

_**"I have one special card." She said to me in a taunting voice. "But I won't let you see it. And you'll never know what it is Aster, because I'm never going to play it!" She began to giggle. When she was distracted I grabbed her deck out of her hands and started to flip through it. Water monster, water monster, water monster, I didn't see anything different.**_

_**"Come on!" I said, wanting to know what it was. She giggled again and took a card out of her card case. She held it up so I could only see the back of it.**_

_**"Here it is!" She laughed as I tried to grab it from her, but she pulled it out of my reach. With one last taunting wiggle of the card in front of my face she put it back in her card case.**_

_**"Claire! You're killing me! What is it?!" I said, as I stuck out my tongue and fell on the floor, pretending that I was dead.**_

_**"You'll never know Aster, and I'm never going to tell you. But I'll tell you one thing, it's a favorite card of someone who I love a lot. It was supposed to be one of a kind, but I had Uncle Pegasus make one for me. It was a present from him. He said 'Claire, I want to get you something special, you can have any card that you want. An Egyptian God, a Sacred Beast?' and I said 'No, I want this one.' He was really surprised, but he made it for me." I immediately guessed that the card was one of her mom's favorites, and she wanted it in her deck since she had really loved her mom and she had been buried with her cards. I tried in vein to grab her card case one last time, but Claire put it behind her and sat on it. I guess I would never know what the mysterious card was.**_

Before I knew what I was doing I was standing up, just staring.

It wasn't a water card.

And it was supposed to be one of a kind.

_"It's a favorite card of someone I love."_ That's what she said, but that was when we were eight.

I never truly believed it until now. She did love me. She had loved me as long as I had loved her. Since we were children. Last night, though she seemed to be sincere, I didn't believe it. I never really believed it. I never thought that such an amazing thing could actually happen to me, after everything. But it did. She felt the same way about me that I felt about her.

"I'll now equip my Dasher with Dark Pendant, and the Malevolent Nuzzler, then I'll use its special ability. By sacrificing my Terrorking Salmon I'll increase my Dasher's attack by 1000 points, making it have an attack of 4300. It will now attack your Cyber-End Dragon." Zane's Dragon was instantly destroyed. "Next I'll use my Call of the Haunted trap to bring back my Space Mambo, who will attack your life points directly!" Her Mambo reappeared on the field, happy to be back. It attacked Zane and he fell to his knees. He clutched his heart with pain and stood up with difficultly. With one last look at the person who defeated him he walked off. The duel was over. Claire won.

Before the announcer had even finished talking I was running onto the arena. Claire's eyes had barely even seen me before I took her in my arms.

"I'm so sorry." She told me. I kissed her softly.

"I know." She closed her eyes and put her face in my chest. I had missed her warmth and touch for so long. There was nothing like it in the world. I never wanted to let her go. I would never let her go again. This is where we belonged, with each other, standing here, just happy that we were together again.

"I love you." She said.

I tilted her head up and kissed her, this time more passionate and longer.

"I love you more than you could ever know." I told her when we were done, our foreheads touching, both of us smiling. We went in for another round. We hadn't realized that people were staring at us and cameras were flashing. We didn't care. We had each other. And that was all that mattered. After a few more minutes we stopped.

I put my arm around her waist and she smiled. More cameras flashed as we walked out of the arena. Reporters were coming up to us, asking if we were back together. Asking if it was just because Claire won. Asking whether Zane was distraught. Asking if we liked Coke or Pepsi. We ignored them. Nothing could ruin our perfect happiness, our bliss. I had never felt happier than I had right then.

--

Back in the hotel we talked about everything that had happened. I had never really truly listened to her about what had transpired with Zane, I had only listened to what Alexis had said. I found that it was my mistake. She showed me the healing bruises that Zane had caused her, and I felt a surge of anger. If he really did love her, who according to Claire, he did, why would he do this?

I took every spot that he had touched her, bruised her, and kissed it. She giggled and smiled. It felt so good to hear her laugh again. It had felt like years since I'd seen her smile.

I told her all about last night, minus the stuff about Dieter being a maniac who wanted to kill her, but about her passing out.

"I was there, so were Anton and Zane." I told her.

"Anton?" She asked me with a puzzled face. I had forgotten that she never actually knew what his real name was.

"You know him as Toon. It's a nickname for Anton." I explained to her.

"Oh." She nodded, eager to hear what had happened.

"Some guy hit you on the back of your head, and you passed out." I said, trying to omit the scarier details. "Anton carried you for a bit, but I came with, just to make sure that you were okay. I didn't think that you cared, but I still did. I wanted to make sure that you weren't hurt. While you were in Anton's arms you started to… stir? I guess you would say. But you were saying something… it sounded like you were saying Aster." Claire blushed and smiled.

"I tend to talk in my sleep." She said, trying to find an excuse.

"It's okay. I love it. I love everything about you." Claire blushed again and I continued. "So Anton let me carry you after that. At the hotel I tried to give you back to him, but you stopped me. You said 'Aster?'" I tried to do an impression of her voice, but I failed. "And I asked you 'Yes?' and you said 'I love you.' And I told you the same in return." Claire smiled and put her head in my lap.

"I'm sad that I can't remember that." She told me while looking up at my face with her beautiful eyes. We spent a few minutes like this, just smiling at each other. Soaking up the others essence. But then Claire suddenly stiffened and her expression changed. "Aster, if I tell you something, will you think that I'm insane?"

I was worried, Claire wouldn't usually ask something like that. "I promise that nothing you could ever say or do would ever cause me to think that."

"Okay then," she said and swallowed. "You remember that Dieter guy?" I nodded, if he had done something bad to her, I wouldn't rest until I had his head on a platter. "I was supposed to… steal something from Jaden for him, some card. He told me that if I did… you would love me. This was two years ago, when I first met Dieter. But you did, even before I stole it. So I wasn't going to. But then we fought, and I didn't think that you really loved me. So then I was getting ready to steal it. But then at the dance club, it was him who made me pass out. I know it. He told me to lose the duel, if I did that then I wouldn't have to steal the thing, and that you would… marry me." She flashed red with embarrassment. "Do you still want marry me even though Zane kissed me and I won the duel?" She seemed so self-conscious that I had to smile. I looked at her again and grinned. How could she be so naive?

"Of course Claire." I took the ring that I had given her out of my pocket, where I had been storing it, just because I wanted to carry some piece of her around with me, and I got down on my knees. "Will you, Claire Rodgers, take me, Aster Phoenix, to be your husband?" Claire nodded quickly and a tear ran down her face. She tried to wipe it away but I got there first. I pulled her into a long, hard kiss. But when we were done I knew I had to call Anton to tell him about Dieter. "I'll be just a minute." I told Claire, leaving her on the couch in her room.

When I got outside, I immediately took out my phone and called.

"Hello?" Anton's voice said.

"It's Aster, I have to tell you something about Dieter…" I explained about Claire and Dieter and his suggestions to her.

"Aster, don't leave her for a moment. If you see Dieter anywhere, run. Take her with you. As soon as you are safe, call me. And stay in the hotel, it will be safer there. Kaiba's got cameras in every room." I told Anton that I would and I hurried back into the room. Thankfully, Claire was still sitting there.

"I'm back." I said with a smile.

"I'm glad." She said, also beaming.

I sat down next to her on the couch she was sitting on. I had almost forgotten how beautiful she was. How soft her skin was to the touch, how her hair tickled you when it touched you, how her eyes could almost see into the depths of your soul.

"I love you." I told her once again as I reached in for another kiss. Every moment with her was pure, unadulterated bliss.

We started off slowly, just exploring each other's mouths once again. Everything was familiar. The curve of her hip as I held it against me, the way that she held her hand against the back of my neck. It was all coming back to us.

Then we got a little harsher. We were more aggressive, we both wanted more of each other. More than we had ever had before. She began to pull my hair out and I pulled her in closer to me that it was almost violent. We kept at it though, the mild discomfort was nothing compared to the pleasure of having the other once again. She took her hands out of my hair and began to unbutton my jacket. We had never done anything like this before. We were about to go further, when there was a knock on the door.

"Let's ignore it." I told her, wanting to continue. She gave me a look, and then got up to get the door.

In a moment, she was gone.

--

"Tell me your secrets, and nurse me your questions. Oh let's go back to the start."

-Coldplay, The Scientist

**Okay, so I've hit a total block with my terrible NaNoWriMo so I decided to post another chapter of this, which I have decided, is the worst fanfic ever written. Oh well, there's only a few chapters left now. And sorry about the fluffy factor in this one. That's really the last fluffy thing in the story… thank God. Other than that I hope that ya'll haven't been too mad at me for the lack of up-dation in the story. I'm a busy girl.**

**Aster-Phew. So you mean that's the last time that you make me so OC that I throw up?**

**Me- No, not quite. There is that sex scene with Sartorius that Zane and Jaden get into in chapter 21…**

**Zane-You've got to be freaking kidding me.**

**Me-I am, don't worry.**

**Aster-I think… I think I'm having a heart attack…**

**Zane-Oy vey. I'll go get my medicine.**


	20. Yellow

Book Five: Zane

"I swam across, I jumped across for you. Oh all the things you do. Cause you were all yellow."

-Yellow, by Coldplay

Occasionally life grants you a small favor.

This, in some respects, was one of those occasions.

After walking alone for hours, dodging everything that made me think of anything, Claire, Aster, Alexis, anything, I finally came back to the hotel. I was pretty down. I had been beaten, had any hope that may have still been in the back of my mind bashed out by a hammer, and to top it all off, my manager had just dropped me. For getting second place.

He said it was pitiful that I lost to a Water deck.

I guessed that he had never been up against one.

But I had been walking back into the hotel when I saw him, meaning Dieter, carrying off a girl, a girl with orange hair.

Claire.

I knew that I was stupid to follow him. Claire was no longer my concern. She had chosen someone else; I wasn't good enough for her. But I had always been a masochist. I followed him.

--

_**"I really regret being in this tournament." She said with a sigh, sadness covering her entire face. "I can't wait to get home."**_

_**"Same." I said agreeing totally. This tournament seemed to be screwing up everyone's lives. Claire had lost the love of her life, I had gained one and it even seemed to make Aster suicidal.**_

_**"Let's go for a walk." I nodded and we headed out in silence. There had been a truce between us for the past few days. I needed, not necessarily wanted, to help her, and she needed a friend. I guess that I was the only one left. When we got out of the hotel I had to ask her.**_

_**"What are my chances?" I said, having to know the truth.**_

_**"Slim." She said. "Maybe if I had never met… him," She had been having trouble saying Aster's name. "Don't get me wrong Zane, you're… well, you're not a great guy, but you're…" She seemed to be getting upset, so I tried to grab her hand, but she pulled away. For the first time I noticed that she was no longer wearing a wedding ring.**_

_**"I know I'm not a great guy." I told her, and we continued walking.**_

_**"Maybe you are." She said softly. "But I'll never really know that."**_

--

Dieter dropped Claire in an abandoned warehouse, the warehouse that I was supposed to have taken Claire after our duel. Seeing the image of what I had been promised, still pressed in my mind even though she had won, would haunt me until the end of my days.

"Miss Claire." Dieter said with a smile. "It's time now." Claire had begun to stir in her sleep and Dieter slapped her. "Be quiet you fool!" There was a soft whimper, then silence.

I was surprised that Dieter hadn't noticed me yet, the lighting was bad in the warehouse, but there wasn't that much to hide behind. I was just against the wall in a corner. He continued circling Claire; he seemed to be waiting for something.

After about ten minutes he muttered something in German and rushed out of the door.

I acted quickly.

I ran over to Claire, who wasn't completely unconscious, but was getting there.

"Claire, are you alright?" I asked her.

"No." She said as her eyes slid closed.

I picked her up and took her to a corner of the warehouse; I would have a better time protecting her there. I knew that it wouldn't end if I just took her back to the hotel, Dieter would either catch us or he would just come after her again. For some strange reason the law didn't care much about the evil plots of duelists anymore, so they wouldn't be much help even if we did manage to escape.

"Where is the girl?" Asked a deep voice from the doorway, it's German accent heavier than Dieter's. My guess was that it was his father.

"Right here." Dieter said as they walked in. They stopped in their tracks.

"She's gone." The father said, no surprise showing in his voice.

"I knew that Phoenix would be here to save her!" Dieter said with… a laugh? Now that was truly puzzling. "Aster, oh Aster, come out wherever you are!" Dieter yelled. My eyes locked with Dieter's and the grin was swiped off his face.

"Sorry Dieter, but Aster's not here." I said, feeling somewhat like I was a bad hero from an action film. Zane Truesdale and the Freaky German Duelists. It would be a box office smash.

"Leave Truesdale." Dieter said softly, venom pouring into every word. "Leave or I shall kill you as well."

I stood my ground.

"Kill him Dieter." His father said in a bored voice. I rolled my eyes, if I was going to go like this; I wanted to go with my enemies thinking I was at least somewhat of a threat.

Dieter lunged at me.

I hadn't realized he was so weak.

He had obviously never really been taught how to fight properly. I had him down on the ground within a few moments. His father grinned at me.

"Finally." He said as he walked closer to me. "Someone worthy of power." I looked at him for a moment. Anton had inherited his blonde hair, but Dieter got his brown eyes. He had a fat moustache and was pudgy. I wouldn't have been surprised if he had a cigar in his pocket, he just looked like the sort of man who would enjoy smoking those things.

Dieter moaned and started to sit up, rubbing his head. His father kicked him in the head and he immediately passed out. I looked down at him for a moment. He was still breathing, that was all I needed to know.

"Zane, give me the girl and I will give you everything you've ever wanted. Fame, fortune, women, you name it and it shall be yours. Just give me the girl." I nearly laughed. How naive could this guy get? I wasn't a good guy; I wasn't in it for the good of humanity. I was selfish. The only reason I was there was to keep Claire safe, it wasn't to stop him, if it had been anyone else in the world I probably wouldn't have cared.

"How about I take the girl and you get some therapy. Or you can find some other girl, I just won't give you this one." I told the balding man, who gave a look of sheer anger, than laughter.

"If you can find me another female descendant of the wise woman Isis from the Court of the Nameless Pharaoh who possesses the gift of the same blood, you can call me. But from what I can tell, she is the only one, and therefore I need her." I was baffled, Claire was Egyptian? She didn't look it. "Her family split many years ago, half stayed in Egypt, perhaps you've heard of the Ishtars? That was their family name. The other half however, they moved to Northern Europe around three thousand years ago. Her looks betray her heritage, she shares the same blood of her ancestor, and the blood that I need. With her blood, I can recreate a monster so powerful that I can enslave the entire Earth. And if you give me the girl you can share in this massive power Zane. You yearn for power, you yearn for glory. It's what you have wanted since you were a child. And it is in your grasp Zane, you can have it!"

Those powerful words were his last.

His scream pierced through the night as he fell to the floor. His other son was behind him with a bloody dagger in his hands. Tears streamed down his face.

"Dieter!" He yelled as he saw his brother's body lying in front of me. He kneeled at his brother's side. He slapped him and Dieter began to wake. "Dieter, are you alright?" Dieter sneered at his brother and grabbed the dagger out of Anton's hands. Before anyone knew what was going on, Dieter was on top of me, trying to launch the dagger into my skin.

"Damn you." He shouted as I got on top of him. He managed to roll over and knock me off of him. His target changed and his dagger was pointed for Claire.

I got there just in time.

She wasn't dead.

I was.

--

**Yay! Third to last chapter. And it's really weird! But at least it covers up all of the plot holes. Because there were a lot of them. Plot holes, I mean. There were a lot of plot holes… And sorry I haven't updated in… in a really, really long time. Life interferes occasionally. So… yeah. **


	21. Hospital Bed

**Here's the last real chapter of this fic, there's an epilogue and one other thing coming, but this is really the end. It's been really great writing this and I'd like to thank everyone who has been reviewing and talking about this. It really means a lot.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh or Yu-Gi-Oh GX.**

--

They said that I had been talking in my sleep for sometime now. They were just about to lose hope when I began to talk. They said that at first, it was only one word. I could guess what it was. Then I began to talk about my childhood, God only knew where that came from. I talked about my family and my days at Duel Academy. Then I talked about being the Kaiser, and about Alexis. Then I was back to talking about Claire. They were just glad that I had memories. They were afraid of what they would get after I woke up.

They told me that I was lucky to be alive, but that wasn't the first time I had heard that. And it wasn't the first time that I didn't believe that. For me, being alive was someone's cruel, sick joke.

I really did think that I was dead. The problem was that I couldn't think. I was apparently in a coma, a really deep one. They were pretty sure that I'd never wake up. I was in it for a month, less than many, but it didn't mean that they were less worried. It wasn't the hard stab that Dieter had given me in the arm that had sent me into it; it was the heart attack that followed. But I was alive now, I'd be in a wheelchair for the rest of my life, a fate that I thought I would avoid, and I'd never duel again, but I was alive.

It was the worst thing I could ask for.

In the coma, though I hadn't been able to think, I dreampt all the time. Sometimes I saw nothing, sometimes I felt like I could see everything. I couldn't tell if I was in heaven or hell. I wanted to get out so badly, but I wanted to stay even more, but the feelings would just flip-flop over and over again. They were the most confusing things that I've ever whitnessed, but somehow, they were also the least confusing.

I saw her a lot in the dreams.

I couldn't really help it.

I hoped that if I was dead, which I was pretty sure I was, that they would all forget about me. I had been in this position before, in the Dark World. I knew that if I were to die, I would have wanted them all to forget about Zane, forget about Hell-Kaiser, forget about me. I hadn't achieved my goals. I wasn't the best, I wasn't memorable, I wasn't anything. I was just another passing moment in the clock of time, soon to be forgotten. And the sooner the better.

I didn't want anyone to mourn for me; it wasn't worth the time. I just wanted to disappear. I wanted all of the memories of Zane Truesdale to disappear as well. I just wanted to be forever more some person that no one remembered.

--

Apparently Alexis and Atticus had visited me; that was surprising. They left me a note, a lot of people did. Of course Alexis hated me, I didn't blame her, but Atticus said he was willing to forgive me if I woke up.

Part of me thought he hoped I wouldn't.

My brother and his friends had all come and left words that wished me well. I wasn't sure why. I had never been particularly kind or even sensibly nice to any of them. Many of them probably hated me. But yet they wanted me to wake up.

Human emotions were never my specialty. Even as a child I was more grown-up and cynical than most. It seemed to really scare Syrus the most, he was never a fan of when I acted like someone in the real world rather than the fun-loving and easy going brother that he wished that he had.

But the one thing that I never really grasped about human emotions was love. Of course I felt _something_ for my parents and my brother. That was a given. But I never thought that I loved them properly, as I should. I don't really think that I knew what love even was until the fatal moments before this all happened.

In the beginning I didn't love Claire. It was really more of something that Hell-Kaiser would have done, instead of me. I saw something I couldn't have, but wanted it nonetheless. I was like a child whose parent's wouldn't buy them a lollipop that the parents knew the child would hate in the end. My lollipop was Claire. She was the unattainable; the piece of candy that I would never be able to get no matter how hard I tried. But once I realized that what I had done to her was wrong and when I really did get to know her, I did fall in love with her.

I just hadn't noticed.

For me, love was something out of a crappy teen movie. You had it at the end of the movie, but what would come after that? You knew that the high school sweethearts wouldn't be together in a few years. She would go off to art school and he would be off to college and they would either break-up due to lack of communication or he'd get drunk one night and end up sleeping with some random whore on his dorm floor.

I never thought that love was real.

But there it was, staring me in the face, and I didn't realize it.

I didn't really, truly know what love was until I blocked her from the dagger and gave up my life for her.

They told me that it was a day after Claire came when I began to talk.

The Doctors told me how she cried when she saw me and how she begged me to wake up. She had been there for the entire time she could possibly visit, just talking to me and trying to wake me up. They wouldn't let her touch me, but she would have shaken me awake if she had gotten the chance. That's what they told me. Aster hadn't come in; he had waited outside for her. He apparently wished that I wouldn't wake up. I could relate to him more than I could to Claire.

But I did wake up. And when I did, I knew that I'd have to find a way to live on with life.

Of course I was stuck in the wheelchair now, and I wouldn't leave the hospital for another three months, at least, but I found ways to live.

Then again, living without her wasn't much of a life at all.

But life went on, the world kept turning and new things kept happening. I managed to block her out of my thoughts during the day; to ignore the nagging thoughts of her in my head, but at night I let myself think of her; to dream of her.

She taught me new ways to dream.

--

"For you I bleed myself dry."

-Coldplay, Yellow


	22. Epilogue or New Ways To Dream

"We'll give the world new ways to dream."

-Andrew Lloyd Webber, Sunset Boulevard

--

It was much less awkward then I thought it would be. I knew that it wasn't in her personality to hold something against someone. I almost wished that it was, it would have made the whole situation easier for me.

Two years had passed since the tournament. I hadn't really kept in touch with her since then. An occasional e-mail for the first year, but it was just too awkward.

What could she really say to someone she hated, but saved her life nonetheless?

My life went on.

Nothing really romantic, my follies with Alexis were far to great to make any duelist want to go out with me again, and I really wasn't interested in anyone else. Claire would be the only one who I'd ever really want. I tried not to look at the news articles about her. How she was such a great duelist, and how her and Aster were the best dueling couple since Mai and Joey, but it was hard.

Their wedding was scheduled to be in two weeks.

When I thought about it my heart began to beat faster.

Which was a very bad thing.

Apparently, I was due to die about a month ago. I was a medical marvel. No one knew how I was surviving. But I guessed what it was. It was because I wouldn't die. Because my body was too damn stubborn to die before I had closure.

I cursed it. I would have rather been dead.

--

I thought that maybe she wouldn't be there. It was a little known duel convention. Few people were invited, and even fewer actually attended it. If you had mentioned it to most duelists, they'd be utterly confused. I thought I'd be safe.

I had really gotten out of the pro circuit. I didn't duel anymore. I wasn't confined to a wheelchair now, but for a while I was. Since everyone was just waiting around for me to die, they let me out. So I wandered about the small convention, getting more than a few whispers and stares. One kid asked me to give him an autograph, and I did, unwillingly and silent.

I wasn't very well liked in the dueling community, and I could understand why.

I was just about to leave when I saw her from the other side of a booth. The first thing I noticed was her hair, she had changed it. It was no longer orange, but just a plain brown color. Alexis had been right when she said that Claire dyed her hair. I sighed and watched her for a few moments.

She was walking along the booths with Aster, his arm around her waist. Every once in a while they would stop to look at something, but, as always, their attention was mainly on each other. I knew that some things would never change, but this undying love crap was just unrealistic.

With one last look I began to walk away.

Then I heard footsteps behind me.

"Zane!" I heard a voice say and I swore under my breath. I thought that I was going to get away with not having any confrontation. I turned around to see Claire.

"Hello." I said.

"Hey." She said, suddenly awkward.

We stood in silence for a moment.

"How's everything been?" She asked lamely. I nearly laughed. Without thinking, I gave her an answer.

"Just great. I'm due to die any day now and I can't even duel anymore. Just peachy." I did actually laugh this time. She gave a look of slight disgust and horror. Apparently she didn't find my situation quite as humorous as I did.

"I'm sorry." She said. Avoiding the subject of apologies, I switched it.

"I can see that you've been doing well." I said. Her face didn't light up as much as I thought that it would. She did smile a bit however, and even after two years, it made my heart begin to beat faster.

"Yeah, everything's been great lately." She said quietly. She smiled at me and my heart began to beat faster once again. Almost immediately the awkwardness came back.

"I need to leave." I told her, wishing I hadn't. Her face grew dark as she nodded.

"Okay, if you really have to." I nodded and began to walk out. After a moment an arm grabbed mine.

"Please don't go yet." Claire said, her eyes wide. "This might be the last time we see each other, you realize that, right?" I nodded.

"There's nothing left to say though." I told her as I gently removed her arm.

"Yes there is." She said, a few tears starting to form now.

"What?" I asked, genuinely curious.

"I just wanted to… thank you. For everything. If it wasn't for you…" I interrupted her.

"I know." She looked down.

"Okay. I… I guess that's it then." Before I realized the words were coming out of my mouth, I said them.

"No, it's not it."

"What do you want to say Zane?" She asked me.

"I really did love you." I said, knowing that this would be the last time I would ever see her again.

"I know."

We stood and looked at each other. I could see Aster watching us carefully from the corner of my eye, but it didn't matter. The only thing on my mind was that the girl who I was in love with was standing there, looking at me in a way that she had never done before. It wasn't filled with disgust and hatred, just looking at me like a… friend.

I took her in my arms. I could feel that she was crying. I just held on tighter. Aster looked away, Claire had obviously warned him to stay back. I was glad. I needed just these few minutes. She was short enough that I could rest my chin on top of her head, and we found a comfortable stance. I could honestly say that those were some of the best moments of my life.

But the next few were better.

In a second Claire removed herself from my grasp. I was prepared to say good-bye but she apparently wasn't. In a split second her mouth was on mine.

I wasn't about to pass up the invitation.

I kissed her like I had never kissed anyone in my entire life. All of the memories flooded back as we explored each other's mouths. The rest of the world disappeared around us, there was only the two of us, there was only this moment and there was only one thing we had on our minds. This would be the last time we would ever see each other again, and we were about to make the best of it.

Our heads pulled apart after a few more moments and we looked at each other again.

And for once my heart didn't speed up.

--

_**Duel! Magazine**_

_This week's top stories:_

_Page 6: Jesse Anderson and Jaden Yuki's engagement_

_Page 10: Alexis Rhodes and Anton Multov's new twins, first photos here!_

_Page 14: Mokuba Kaiba's 32__nd__ disappearance_

_Page 18: Aster Phoenix, new frontrunner on the next King of Games_

_Page 24: A Tour of Maximillion Pegasus's New Vacation Home_

_Page 30: Our Top Story of the Week: Claire Rodgers and Zane Truesdale's seaside elopement. Exclusive pictures can be found here._

_Page 45: Is Chazz Princeton stalking Alexis Rhodes?_

--

I smiled and put the magazine down. It was good to see that after everything, someone would get their happily ever after. It didn't happen often, but for once, it really was.

"Coming Aster?" Serena asked me from the other room.

"Yeah." I said as I got up to join my mock family.

"Come Aster, our plane will be leaving shortly." I grabbed my bag and headed with the two others to the limousine in Sartorius's driveway. I wasn't sure where Sartorius was taking me, but I was sure that life would be better once I got there.

It was about time that I got away from it all.

--

"Everyone needs new ways to dream."

-Andrew Lloyd Webber, Sunset Boulevard


	23. Extras

Here's some extras about this fic if you wanted to now. I've got a few plot holes I need to fill and some stories I wanted to add and some questions I want to answer.

First, the title

"New Ways To Dream" is a song from the Broadway musical "Sunset Boulevard" and though this fic has absolutely nothing to do with the song (the song's about a washed up silent movie actress who wants to get back in the biz) I thought that the title was more appropriate for this fic than any other title I could think of. Whether you realize it or not, this fic has a lot to do with dreaming; my idea for this came from a dream and there are multiple times when people have dreams that matter or seem like they're living in a dream… or a nightmare.

Second, Dieter and Anton

I have no bloody clue where I got the idea for these two. I guess I chose Dieter because that's the name I choose for a lot of people. I have an unhealthy _obsession_ with the name Dieter. Like, I love it. I'm going to name all of my children Dieter and that would get really, really confusing. The only reason that Dieter and Anton are German is because Dieter is a German name. They could have easily been Russian or Spanish or French-Canadian if I had an obsession with a name from somewhere else. I'm sorry if I offended anyone with my German villains (if it makes anyone feel better, I am German so… yeah.) Oh, funny story. So I started writing this fic before I watched the last season of GX (the dub). So I was trying to pick a name for Dieter and Anton's dad, even though his name is never mentioned, and I came across the _perfect_ name. Ubel. It means evil in German. I was soooo excited. But then I watched the season (I was late to the fandom so I just watched it online) and got really pissed off that there was already a villain named Yubel. HAHAHA. Not. Sorry.

Third, Jaden and Jesse

I totally thought I'd have some more of them in this fic; I was really planning to. But somehow they sort of just kinda got left out. It's a sort of a sucks to be them moment. I know I promised more, I just couldn't deliver. Sorry.

Fourth, the songs

All of the songs that I used as book headers and endings have to do with dreaming or love, even if you have to squint a little. Northern Downpour is just one big drug trip, so that's pretty much a dream. Within You is from Labyrinth which is just a big dream sort of thing etc. etc. The strangest thing about this; now that I look back; is the amount of Coldplay I used. Sure, I like Coldplay and they're good and all, but I never really gave them that much thought before I started this fic. But I listened to Yellow and that's how I got the idea for the whole thing with the club and Aster carrying her home. It was sickening, but fun to write. Another thing, My Never has not been released yet, it'll come out in 2009. I had the privlage of seeing Justin Furstenfeld live, and he sung that song and it broke my heart, so that's why I wanted to use it.

Fifth, the ending

I am sure that a lot of people read the epilogue and went "What? The? Flippity? Flip? Flip?" Believe me, I had the same reaction when I was writing it. But I didn't think that it would end the way that people would want it to end. I had known since the beginning that Claire and Zane would end up together; first because I wouldn't want to force my bad OC onto Aster, and second is because in the end it was Zane who risked his life for her, not Aster. In real life it would be hard for someone to trust their significant other after they were nearly killed by a freaky villain and were left to be saved by someone else. I think that there would have been real troubles in Aster and Claire's relationship after the whole thing with Dieter and they wouldn't have lasted long because of that anyway.

Sixth, the writer's block

Writer's block can do very nasty things to people. It can make them make characters very, _very _out of character and make original characters very, _very_ weird. As everyone could probably tell, towards the middle of the fic I got very bad writer's block. That's how Dieter got super special magical powers, Zane became a rapist and Aster became a whiny emo boy. How people can still seem to read this fic after that middle area, I have no clue.

Seventh, the Award

I want to give awards to MoonDaySquealer and UchihaHakura64 for reviewing so much and making me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside. It's people like you guys who make writing this crap worth while.

A couple of back stories…

**Anton and Dieter:** They grew up in Germany in a very old fashioned house hold. Their father had all of the power was very strict and harsh on the two boys. Dieter easily accepted it; he practically worshiped his father. Anton on the other hand was not as willing to accept. Their mother ran off when they were twelve and she took Anton with her. Anton and Dieter kept communicating, because despite everything they did love each other. Anton hated his father and was glad to be rid of him.

**Claire:** I'll give you the abridged version because it was in the fic. Her parents both died and she was adopted by Pegasus. She met Aster when she was young and the two fell in love. She was taught at home by tutors and was the apple of Pegasus's eye. That's about it. :D

Whatever happened to…

**Anton:** Anton and Alexis got married. Yay! Happiness, love, joy! Children! Yes, they had twins! Everything was perfect except Anton would angst over his dad and brother a lot. But Alexis was fine with that. Anton became a professor at a college and taught… The History of Dueling! WOOO! (And by the way, Anton's my Mary-Sue. If I were a man, I'd be Anton. And the White Magical Hat is my favorite card.)

**Dieter:** He lived alone for the rest of his life. In Germany. He died a few years after the tournament. He was a smoker and developed lung cancer.

**Alexis:** She married Anton. She became a teacher. Wow. That's a _shocker_.

**Atticus**: Atticus soon came out of the closet after the tournament and it changed his life. He became Pegasus's apprentice and together they made millions on their television show "Queer Eye for the Duelist Guy". He then came out with his own fashion line that boosted him up to stardom. He now lives with Seto Kaiba in the KaibaCorp building. He's trying to make Mokuba a bit more fabulous every day.

**Pegasus:** He is still flambouyant and did a lot of wacky shit. He had himself cryogenically frozen when he was getting sick so he could come back out later to grace the world with his presence again.

**Jesse and Jaden:** They both became pro duelists and had mad hot sex every night.

**Mai and Joey:** They got their own sitcom that was a great success. They lived life happily and with lots and lots of money.

**Valon: **He had sex with a lot of women. He was good at that. He became Hugh Heffner's heir. He went on to have a lot more sex with a lot more women.

**Sartorius:** He wished that he could have Aster for years, but he tried to ask him out one day only to be rejected with a punch in the nose. He never really recovered from that. Sometimes, legend says, you can still see his ghost in New Domino City, still searching for his lost love…

**Kaiba: **Kaiba decided to never host another tournament again; they all caused to many freaky things to happen. He's currently in a relationship with Atticus and is working on the designs for the D-Wheel.

**Yubel: **She wasn't introduced into the human world before this… but she watches… and she waits… (and there will be no sequel for her to get her revenge.)

**Aster:** Aster eventually got over Claire. It took a lot of mad, hot sex with lots of nameless women, but eventually he found someone else and married him… I mean her. It was totally a her. :P He was a pro-duelist until the Turbo Duels became popular. He then decided it was time to retire because he fell off of one of those bikes once and refused to get back on. He wrote a book though How I Managed to Battle Every Freaky Duelist Alive and Still Managed Not to Get the Girl. It sold millions of copies.

**Zane and Claire: **Well… they lived happily ever after.

About myself (because I've got an ego)

I just had to add a bit about myself because I'm amazing! First: I'm a chick and I like dudes. Second: I'll be turning 15 in 2009. Third: I absolutely adored writing this fanfiction (the first fic that I've ever finished writing) but I absolutely hated where the story went. Fourth: I love you all.

If you want…

More stuff written by me go to my profile and look there or go there and click on the link to my Livejournal which has writing that is not exclusively fanfiction.

To ask me a question then go PM me or ask me something on Livejournal. I don't bite, go ahead and ask. I love answering questions.

To kill me for writing this piece of shit. Don't. I'll kill you first.

Me to shut up.

…

I'm shutting up now.

Thanks for reading everyone!


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